Lyft to enter European market with $200 million FreeNow acquisition

Under unit from ascendant ride-hailing rival Uber Technologies (UBER) successful its location North American market, Lyft has been seeking caller avenues to turn its business.

The acquisition of FreeNow volition astir treble its imaginable marketplace and unfastened doors to large European cities specified arsenic London, Frankfurt, Paris and Milan, wherever the German steadfast offers services ranging from accepted taxi to e-scooter rentals and car-sharing options.

Lyft would beryllium entering the European marketplace astatine "a bully terms and much importantly, a large time," Lyft CEO David Risher told Reuters, adding the institution was successful a financially beardown presumption to expand.

FreeNow operates successful much than 150 cities crossed 9 European countries. The institution said successful September it had achieved break-even status, connected the backmost of a 13% year-on-year summation successful 2024 gross and its absorption connected taxi operations.

Lyft said the acquisition volition astir treble its addressable marketplace to much than 300 cardinal idiosyncratic conveyance trips per twelvemonth from astir 161 billion.

"Almost fractional of the taxi manufacture successful Europe is inactive offline. So it's besides wherever a batch of maturation imaginable comes from," FreeNow CEO Thomas Zimmermann said successful an interview.

But its efforts to turn successful Europe by capturing much of the offline marketplace volition look contention from Uber arsenic good arsenic Estonia's Bolt Technology, arsenic some companies person a beardown clasp implicit the European market.

European regulations are besides pushing ride-hailing firms to heighten operator benefits, specified arsenic minimum wage guarantees and vacation pay, portion besides expanding unit connected pricing structures to guarantee just compensation.

Bolt precocious introduced benefits specified arsenic vacation wage and minimum wage guarantees for UK drivers successful effect to regulatory pressures.

($1 = 0.8821 euros)

(Reporting by Akash Sriram successful Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)