Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt plans to buy German micro-mobility startup Tier

Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt plans to buy German micro-mobility startup Tier. Bolt is currently running an in-depth analysis of Tier. 

Earlier, Tier had issued convertible bonds worth €30M mainly to existing #investors, such as Austrian venture capital firms Speedinvest, UK VC Northzone, US Mubadala Capital, New York-based financial services firm Goldman Sachs and Japanese investment firm SoftBank.

Tier had also discussed the possible sale with US-shared electric vehicle company Lime, but they were not successful. Currently, Tier has a debt of more than €130M. It cut 180 employees in August 2022 and laid off another 100 in January 2023.

Berlin-based, Tier owns electric scooters and electric bicycles in 560 cities around the world. It works in many European countries, UK, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates. The company was founded in 2018 by Julian Blessin, Lawrence Leuschner, Matthias Laug. 

Bolt offers ride-hailing services, shared cars and scooters, and food and grocery delivery. It has 100M customers in 45 countries across Europe and Africa. Bolt also covers many European countries, including those ones where Tier does not work, such as Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Romania. The company was founded by Markus Villig, Martin Villig, and Oliver Leisalu in 2013. This acquisition would allow Bolt to expand into other foreign markets. It would also be the first major acquisition in the micro-mobility sector.