San Francisco-based ride-hailing platform Lyft announced it had entered an agreement to acquire FreeNow, a Hamburg-based multi-mobility group owned by BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz mobility, for €175m.
The acquisition, Lyft's first in Europe, is expected to close in the second half of 2025. The move grants the company a pathway to expand into Europe, where it will be competing with popular ride-hailing giants like Uber and Estonia's Bolt.
FreeNow is available across 150 cities across nine countries in Europe, including UK, France and Germany. Together, the companies will operate across 11 countries in US, Canada and Europe, serving 50m combined annual users.
“We’re on an ambitious path to build the best, most customer-obsessed mobility platform in the world, and entering Europe is an important step in our growth journey,” said David Risher, CEO of Lyft in a statement. “We found the perfect partner in FreeNow and can learn a lot from the team."
The announcement comes weeks after Bolt bought Danish taxi startup Viggo for an undisclosed sum in the company’s first-ever acquisition, bringing the taxi app wars to Denmark.
Meanwhile, Bolt has also partnered with London-based Forest, allowing the smaller startup to rent out its e-bikes via its app, challenging the dominance of Uber's Lime on the UK capital's streets.
