Dive Brief:
- Bolt, an Estonian ride-hailing and food delivery startup, has appointed Mikko Salovaara to the CFO seat, the company announced Thursday.
- Salovaara was previously the CFO of Revolut, a British neobank and fintech company, and he has also headed regional finance teams at KraftHeinz Co., a Bolt announcement said.
- “Despite surging inflation, rising interest rates, and macroeconomic uncertainty across many markets, Bolt increased its revenue significantly in 2022,” the announcement said, and the company is looking toward an initial public offering in 2025, according to a Reuters report.
Dive Insight:
Bolt was valued at $8 billion as it raised €628 million from investors in January last year, the Reuters report said. The company — a rival of San Francisco-based Uber — expects to reach profitability in the next 12 months.
“We’re proud to now serve 150 million customers across 45 countries. This extraordinary scale will allow us to reach profitability over the next 12 months,” said founder and CEO Markus Villig in the company announcement.
“Bringing Mikko’s expertise on board at this crucial time for the business will be invaluable as we continue our focus on long-term and sustainable growth and begin our preparations for [the] IPO,” said Villig.
Salovaara had left his previous CFO role at Revolut for “personal reasons,” CFO Dive sister publication Banking Dive previously reported. The finance chief’s exit followed the news that James Radford, CEO of Revolut NewCo UK, the entity designed to hold the neobank’s U.K. banking license, was also leaving the company.
The ride-share industry has experienced a recent resurge associated with an increase in travel. Additionally, with more Americans looking for side hustles in the macroeconomic environment, Uber has been able to offer lower incentives to gig workers, an analyst told Reuters.
Uber reported a 29% growth in revenue year over year for the quarter ending March 31, according to an May 2 earnings release, and they have experienced growth in gross bookings since the reopening of cities following the pandemic.
