Free Now (service)

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Intelligent Apps GmbH
Formerlymytaxi
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryMobility as a service
Predecessorsmytaxi, Hailo, Clever Taxi, Beat, Kapten
Founded2009; 16 years ago (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]
DivisionsFreenow for Business
Websitewww.free-now.com

Freenow, stylized as freenow, 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. Freenow 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

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mytaxi logo

Freenow'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 Freenow 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 FFreenow platform on 2 December 2020.[12]

In January 2021, Freenow 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, Freenow 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

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  1. ^ "Lyft Expands in Europe, Diversifies by Acquiring Freenow". Nasdaq. 16 April 2025. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  2. ^ "Neuer CFO bei Freenow". 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 Freenow is reportedly pulling its Hive scooter service in favor of partnerships". TechCrunch. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  12. ^ "VTC : Kapten devient Freenow 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. ^ "Freenow to free itself from Romania as it doubles down on core European markets". Tech.eu. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  15. ^ "Freenow prepara saída de Portugal". ECO Sapo (in Portuguese). 16 August 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  16. ^ "Freenow 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.
[edit]
  • Media related to Free Now at Wikimedia Commons
  • Official website