Lyft to buy taxi app FREENOW for $197M to enter Europe

Ride-hailing giant Lyft said it has agreed to acquire FREENOW, a German multi-mobility app with ride-hail at its core, from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility for about $197 million in cash. The acquisition opens up the European market to Lyft for the first time. The company has only operated in the U.S. and Canada since it launched in 2012, compared to its biggest rival Uber, which operates globally. FREENOW operates in nine countries and more than 150 cities across Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025. The move comes a few months after FREENOW shared that its strategic focus on its taxi business resulted in year-on-year growth of 13%, and that it was hitting break-even. Lyft said the merger would nearly double its total addressable market to more than 300 billion personal vehicle trips per year, and increase annualized gross bookings by about $1.14 billion. “We’re on an ... Read full article.