Uber rival Taxify is changing its name to Bolt, the Internet ride-hailing company said on Thursday.
“This update brings the brand identity in line with the company’s broader vision of transportation that has already expanded from ride-hailing with cars to motorbikes and scooter-sharing,” it said.
CEO Markus Villig said in a statement that when the company was founded five years ago, its first product was a taxi-dispatch solution that gave it its original name. Since then, it has outgrown parts of its brand, he said.
“Given our ambition to solve transportation problems on an increasingly broader scale, we want the brand to reflect the company’s future rather than the past.”
The Estonian-born tech company serves 25 million customers in about 30 countries. Its business is particularly strong in Europe and Africa.
Bolt provides its services in six African countries. It has plans to further expand its offering in East and West Africa, and in South Africa this year, it said.
The new brand will be gradually rolled out across Bolt’sglobal markets in the coming weeks. Bolt users will not need to take any action as the app will update automatically.