Bolt set to launch food delivery service in South Africa

Bolt, the on-demand ride-hailing service formerly known as Taxify, is set to launch its fledgling food delivery service in South Africa, it announced on Tuesday in a vague press release.

While Bolt operates in 30 countries servicing around 25-million people, South Africa will be among the first three countries in the world — alongside Bolt’s home of Estonia, and Finland — to receive the food delivery service.

“Combined with our technology, efficient operations and thousands of drivers in South Africa, we plan to build the best food delivery service for the people who already use our services daily,” noted Markus Villig, CEO and co-founder of Bolt in the release.

A minimal landing site currently allows for restaurants and partners to sign up for the service, but the company fails to provide more information.

Bolt’s service will face competition from a number of established services in South Africa, including local offering Mr D Food, OrderIn, and international heavyweight Uber Eats.

In an update via email, Bolt told Memeburn on Tuesday that the service will first launch in Cape Town “in the next few months” and will be “expanding across other bigger cities”.

The service will debut alongside a separate app and will be open to current and prospective Bolt drivers. It will function separately from Bolt’s ride-hailing service.

The company failed to provide more granular information regarding the operation of the service or the name of the service, noting that it’s “not able to disclose this information at this time”.

Feature image: Bolt