“The long-term trends are likely to remain unchanged”: Interview with Bolt’s co-founder Martin Villig
Summary
In fact, the startup has always been optimistic, having clung on to its workforce by reallocating them internally, and has just landed €100 million to grow its app across Europe and Africa, signalling brighter times ahead. As cities around the world were restricting movement, we started looking into ways to provide help and assistance to everyone involved and to roll out services that would help people in quarantine acquire the products they need. We’ve had to scrap our product plans and shuffle people between departments to cover for the decline in ride-hailing and the sudden increase in the demand for delivery. The purpose of our request was both to point out that the measures could put local startups as well as Estonia’s position as one of the leading tech hubs in Europe at risk. A company preparing to close a funding round right now would need to focus on a clear path to profitability and on cost consciousness, as these are the things that are valued especially high in uncertain times.