Free Now (service)
 | |
| Formerly | mytaxi |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Mobility as a service |
| Predecessors | mytaxi, Hailo, Clever Taxi, Beat, Kapten |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founders | Niclaus Mewes Sven Külper |
| Headquarters | , Germany |
Area served | Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom |
Key people | Thomas Zimmermann (CEO)[1] Lennart Zipfel (CFO)[2] |
| Services | Vehicle for hire, taxi, carsharing, e-scooter, electric bicycle, e-moped |
| Owner | BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Group (Pending acquisition by Lyft) |
Number of employees | ~1,000 (2025)[3] |
| Parent | Your Now |
| Divisions | Free Now for Business |
| Website | www |
Free Now is a mobility-as-a-service provider headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It operates a mobile app that allows users to book taxis, private hire vehicles, and various micromobility options such as e-scooters, e-bikes, e-mopeds, and carsharing services. The company was established in its current form as part of a 2019 joint venture between the BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Group.[4]
On April 16, 2025, the American ride-hailing company Lyft announced it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire Free Now for approximately €175 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. Upon completion, the acquisition will mark Lyft's primary expansion into Europe.[1] Free Now operates in over 150 cities across nine European countries.[5]
History
[edit]
Free Now's origins trace back to the founding of mytaxi in 2009 by German entrepreneurs Niclaus Mewes and Sven Külper.[6] The legal entity, Intelligent Apps GmbH, was also established that year. In September 2014, Daimler AG (now Mercedes-Benz Group) acquired Intelligent Apps, entering the ride-hailing market.[7]
In 2016, Damiler aquired Hailo, a British taxi-hailing app founded in 2011. This followed by a rebrand to mytaxi which created a large app-based licensed taxi operator in Europe.[6] Over the following years, mytaxi expanded by acquiring companies like Clever Taxi in Romania and Beat in Greece.
A significant restructuring occurred in February 2019 when Daimler and BMW announced a €1 billion mobility joint venture called Your Now, combining their various mobility services.[8] This new parent company consolidated their various services, including the car-sharing platform Share Now, the multimodal app Reach Now, Park Now and Charge Now.[4] As part of this, mytaxi was rebranded to Free Now on July 1, 2019.[4]
The joint venture also operated its own e-scooter brand, Hive, which was discontinued by mid-2020 as the company shifted its strategy to partner with third-party operators instead.[9]
The platform's consolidation under the new branding continued, with other services such as France's Kapten being fully integrated into the Free Now platform on 2 December 2020.[10]
In January 2021, Free Now announced it would allocate over €100 million in resources over the subsequent five years to promote the electrification of its vehicle fleet across Europe.[11]
In 2022, following a strategic review to focus on its core markets, Free Now withdrew from several countries, including Portugal, Romania, and Sweden.[12][13][14]
On April 16, 2025, Lyft announced its acquisition of Free Now for approximately €175 million. Free Now's CEO, Thomas Zimmermann, stated that the company would continue its operations and that joining with Lyft marked "the beginning of an ambitious new phase."[1] The deal is slated for completion in the latter half of 2025.[5]
Services
[edit]Free Now functions as a multi-mobility platform, aggregating various transportation options within a single app. Its core services are taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) booking. It has also expanded to include micromobility services by integrating partners. Users can book e-scooters from companies like Dott, Tier and Voi, e-mopeds from Emmy, Felyx and Cooltra, and e-bikes. The platform also offers access to carsharing services through partners such as Share Now and Sixt.[15]
The company also operates Freenow for Business, a corporate travel management platform that provides companies with a centralized system for booking and managing employee ground transportation.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Lyft Expands in Europe, Diversifies by Acquiring FREENOW". Nasdaq. 16 April 2025. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ "Neuer CFO bei FREE NOW". free-now.com (in German). Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ "FREENOW Secures Ride-Hailing Service with Regula SDK". Regula. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ a b c "Daimler and BMW invest $1.1 billion in urban mobility services". TechCrunch. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ^ a b Lawrence, Cate (17 April 2025). "Bolt sounds alarm over Lyft's €175M FREENOW acquisition: "We're the last European alternative"". Tech.eu. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ a b "Confirmed: Hailo sells 60% of company to Daimler as it merges with MyTaxi". TechCrunch. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ Weis, Christian (3 September 2014). "Bonner Investor lag mit myTaxi goldrichtig". www.business-on.de (in German). Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ^ McGee, Patrick (22 February 2019). "BMW and Daimler to invest €1bn in mobility joint-venture". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ "Daimler and BMW's Free Now is reportedly pulling its Hive scooter service in favor of partnerships". TechCrunch. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ^ "VTC : Kapten devient FREE NOW et veut s'imposer comme leader en France". tourmag.com (in French). 2 December 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ^ "FREENOW Press release" (PDF). Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ "Free Now to free itself from Romania as it doubles down on core European markets". Tech.eu. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ^ "Free Now prepara saída de Portugal". ECO Sapo (in Portuguese). 16 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ^ "Free Now will exit Romanian market at end-August". Romania Insider. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ^ "About FREENOW". FREENOW. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ^ "FREENOW for Business". FREENOW. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
External links
[edit]- Official website
Media related to Free Now at Wikimedia Commons
