Europe's Bolt expands to Nepal with ride-hailing service

European startup Bolt is expanding to Nepal and launching its ride-hailing service in the country. The company's previous market expansion was its launch in Thailand in 2020.

On Wednesday, Bolt announced the pilot of its on-demand ride-hailing service in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu. The startup has kicked off the service with more than 400 local drivers.

Nepal, which has a per-capita national disposable income of $1,683, already has two foreign companies operating in the country's ride-hailing market — Mountain View-headquartered InDrive and Bangladesh's Pathao. However, Bolt announced that it won't charge any commissions to its partners to attract existing ride-hailing drivers to its platform for at least the next six months. It also said that customers would get 15% lower service fees than other competitors on the market.

Similar to the experience available to customers in Europe and Africa, Bolt will let riders in Nepal get safety features such as a dedicated SOS button and a "Share my ride" feature for real-time trip sharing. The Bolt app will also allow both riders and drivers to access in-app calls and messaging without disclosing their phone numbers.

Nepal's ride-hailing market is limited to the country's largest urban economy, the capital city, where there is strong demand from locals and tourists. Domestic startups, including Tootle and Sahara, are also catering to the market, alongside InDrive and Pathao. Nevertheless, Bolt does see a market opportunity as it is going forward with the launch of its service in the country.

"It's far from our smallest market, far from our biggest market," said Jevgeni Kabanov, president of Bolt, in an interview with TechCrunch. "We're looking for basically the markets where we believe we can offer a better service."