Free Now (service)

Intelligent Apps GmbH
Formerlymytaxi
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryMobility as a service
Predecessorsmytaxi, Hailo, Clever Taxi, Beat, Kapten
Founded2009 (2009)
FoundersNiclaus Mewes
Sven Külper
Headquarters
Hamburg
,
Germany
Area served
Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom
Key people
Thomas Zimmermann
(CEO)[1]
Lennart Zipfel
(CFO)[2]
ServicesVehicle for hire, taxi, carsharing, e-scooter, electric bicycle, e-moped
OwnerLyft
Number of employees
~1,000 (2025)[3]
DivisionsFree Now for Business
Websitewww.free-now.com

Free Now, a division of Lyft, 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. Free Now operates in over 150 cities in nine European countries.[4]

The mobile app can be used to book e-scooters from scooter-sharing systems including 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.

History

mytaxi logo

Free Now's origins trace back to the founding of mytaxi in 2009 by German entrepreneurs Niclaus Mewes and Sven Külper.[5] 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.[6] In 2016, Daimler acquired 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.[5] Over the following years, mytaxi expanded by acquiring companies like Beat (formerly Taxibeat) in Greece in February 2017 and Clever Taxi in Romania in June 2017.[7][8]

A mytaxi vehicle in Berlin, 2018

In February 2019, Daimler and BMW announced a €1 billion mobility joint venture called Your Now, combining their various mobility services, including the car-sharing platform Share Now, the multimodal app ReachNow, Park Now and Charge Now.[9][10] mytaxi was rebranded to Free Now on July 1, 2019.[9]

The joint venture also operated Hive, an e-scooter brand, which was discontinued by mid-2020 as the company shifted its strategy to partner with third-party operators instead.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13]

In 2022, following a strategic review to focus on its core markets, Free Now withdrew from several countries, including Portugal, Romania and Sweden.[14][15][16]

In July 2025, Lyft acquired the company for €175 million, expanding in Europe.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Lyft Expands in Europe, Diversifies by Acquiring FREENOW". Nasdaq. 16 April 2025. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  2. ^ "Neuer CFO bei FREE NOW". free-now.com (in German). Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  3. ^ "FREENOW Secures Ride-Hailing Service with Regula SDK". Regula. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b "Confirmed: Hailo sells 60% of company to Daimler as it merges with MyTaxi". TechCrunch. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  6. ^ Weis, Christian (3 September 2014). "Bonner Investor lag mit myTaxi goldrichtig". www.business-on.de (in German). Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  7. ^ "mytaxi acquires taxibeat, the leading taxi app in Greece". EU-Startups. 16 February 2017.
  8. ^ "mytaxi Acquires Clever Taxi, the Leading Taxi App in Romania". PRNewswire. 23 June 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Daimler and BMW invest $1.1 billion in urban mobility services". TechCrunch. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  10. ^ McGee, Patrick (22 February 2019). "BMW and Daimler to invest €1bn in mobility joint-venture". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ "VTC : Kapten devient FREE NOW et veut s'imposer comme leader en France". tourmag.com (in French). 2 December 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  13. ^ "FREENOW Press release" (PDF). Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  14. ^ "Free Now to free itself from Romania as it doubles down on core European markets". Tech.eu. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  15. ^ "Free Now prepara saída de Portugal". ECO Sapo (in Portuguese). 16 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  16. ^ "Free Now will exit Romanian market at end-August". Romania Insider. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  17. ^ Lung, Natalie (July 31, 2025). "Lyft Completes Freenow Acquisition, Isn't Planning to Cut Staff". Bloomberg News.
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