Lyft Expands in Europe, Diversifies by Acquiring FREENOW

SAN FRANCISCO & HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 16, 2025--

Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT), a leading ride hailing marketplace, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FREENOW, a leading European multi-mobility app with a taxi offering at its core, from BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Mobility for approximately €175 million or $197 million* in cash. FREENOW will continue operating as it does today, with its talented leadership team and employees in place to drive growth across 9 countries and over 150 cities across Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, and Austria. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250415370847/en/

Lyft found in FREENOW a partner to immediately fuel its growth strategy, unlock potential for partners, and level up the experience for drivers and riders alike. This marks Lyft’s most significant expansion outside North America, nearly doubling Lyft’s total addressable market to more than 300 billion personal vehicle trips per year, increasing annualized Gross Bookings by approximately €1 billion, diversifying revenue streams, and supporting Lyft’s multi-year targets.

“We’re on an ambitious path to build the best, most customer-obsessed mobility platform in the world, and entering Europe is an important step in our growth journey,” said David Risher, CEO of Lyft. “We found the perfect partner in FREENOW and can learn a lot from the team. FREENOW's local-first approach mirrors Lyft's values and embodies our purpose — to serve and connect.”

FREENOW brings market-leading European taxi expertise, fleet technology and strong relationships with regulators, unions and taxi fleet operators in every market. Lyft brings best-in-class marketplace expertise and customer-obsessed features. The business models are complementary and together will serve over 50 million combined annual riders, with plans to deliver a better product experience, improve service levels, strengthen fleet management capabilities, and bring greater global opportunities to existing and potential partners.

In Europe, the taxi aggregation business is strong and growing. Approximately 50% of taxi bookings in Europe still happen offline, but customers are hungry for more online bookings. FREENOW is primed to capitalize on that opportunity. FREENOW is the leading taxi platform in several major European cities, including Dublin, London, Athens, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, and Hamburg, with luxury vehicles making up a significant portion of its fleet. Taxis accounted for approximately 90% of FREENOW’s Gross Bookings in 2024 and will continue to be the backbone of FREENOW’s business.

“Joining forces with Lyft is a powerful step forward for FREENOW and marks the beginning of an ambitious new phase—one where we strengthen our role as a leading force in European mobility,” said FREENOW CEO Thomas Zimmermann. “Lyft's strong, customer-first track record aligns perfectly with our deep roots in the taxi industry, and together we will push boundaries and raise expectations for fleet owners, taxi drivers, and riders across the continent. We stand with the industry—not above it—and remain proud partners of the community. This collaboration is about combining our strengths, learning from each other, and scaling what works best. We sincerely thank our former shareholders for their trust and enduring partnership throughout the years.”

The strategic acquisition is aligned with Lyft’s disciplined capital allocation strategy of investing in attractive growth opportunities with a customer-obsessed bias. The announcement follows a record-breaking year in 2024 for Lyft, with industry-leading service levels in Q4, record Gross Bookings, GAAP profitability, and record cash flow generation.

What’s next

While there will be no immediate changes to FREENOW’s customer experience, over time, new benefits will be made available to FREENOW drivers and riders. For drivers in many markets, that may look like more transparency around their earnings such as when to expect incentives and real-time information on the best times to drive. For riders, that may look like more consistent pricing, faster matching, and new features and modes. The companies will also focus on integration for riders to seamlessly use either app across the Atlantic, whether they’re in North America or Europe.

*$197 million is based on the EUR/USD foreign exchange rate on the date of signing.

Advisors

Guggenheim Securities, LLC is acting as financial advisor to Lyft, and Baker McKenzie is acting as its legal advisor. Lazard is acting as financial advisor to BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Mobility, and DLA Piper is acting as their legal advisor.

Investor Presentation

The companies have published a presentation to provide an overview of the transaction, which is available on Lyft’s investor relations website at https://investor.lyft.com.

Lyft will hold an investor call in May when it reports Q1 2025 earnings.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Lyft's future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Lyft's expectations, strategy, priorities, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the acquisition of FREENOW including, the timing of the closing of the transaction, and the expected benefits of the transaction, including the timing of those benefits, the financial impact of the transaction on Lyft, the impact of the transaction on Lyft’s addressable market, partnership opportunities, the future operations of FREENOW and plans and expectations for the combined company. Lyft’s expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks related to the macroeconomic environment, risks and uncertainties related to the pending acquisition of FREENOW, including the failure to obtain, or delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals, the risk that such approvals may result in the imposition of conditions that could adversely affect Lyft or the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, or the failure to satisfy any of the closing conditions to the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all; costs, expenses or difficulties related to the acquisition of FREENOW; failure to realize the expected benefits and synergies of the proposed transaction in the expected timeframes or at all; and change in the regulatory environment that impact Lyft. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Lyft's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the full fiscal year 2024 that was filed with the SEC on February 14, 2025. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to Lyft as of the date hereof, and Lyft disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. This press release discusses “customers”. For rideshare, there are two customers in every car - the driver is Lyft’s customer, and the rider is the driver’s customer. We care about both.

About Lyft

Whether it’s an everyday commute or a journey that changes everything, Lyft is driven by our purpose: to serve and connect. In 2012, Lyft was founded as one of the first ridesharing communities in the United States, and is available today in the United States and Canada. Now, millions of drivers have chosen to earn on billions of rides. Lyft offers rideshare, bikes, and scooters all in one app — for a more connected world, with transportation for everyone.

About FREENOW

FREENOW is Europe’s multi-mobility app with taxi offering at its core, available in 9 European countries and over 150 cities. FREENOW users can access various mobility services within a single app, including taxis, private hire vehicles (PHV) or ridesharing, carsharing, car rental, eScooters, eBikes, eMopeds and public transport.

Lyft Expands in Europe, Diversifies by Acquiring FREENOW

DETROIT (AP) — Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration for what they say is the unlawful withholding of over $2 billion in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs.

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Seattle is the latest legal battle that Democratic-led states are pursuing over funding for EV charging infrastructure that they say was obligated to them by Congress under former President Joe Biden, but that the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are “impounding.”

“The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to stop funding for electric vehicle infrastructure must come to an end,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a release. “This is just another reckless attempt that will stall the fight against air pollution and climate change, slow innovation, thwart green job creation, and leave communities without access to clean, affordable transportation."

President Donald Trump's administration has been hostile to EVs and has dismantled several Biden-era policies friendly to cleaner cars and trucks in favor of policies that align with Trump’s oil and gas industry agenda.

Transportation Department officials did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The Trump administration in February ordered states to halt spending money for EV charging that was allocated in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed under the previous administration.

Several states filed a lawsuit in May against the administration for withholding the funding from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program for a nationwide charging buildout. A federal judge later ordered the administration to release much of the funding for chargers in more than a dozen states.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later issued revised guidance intended to streamline funding applications for states and make charger deployment more efficient. At least four states — Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Wisconsin — have announced awards under the vehicle infrastructure program, according to Loren McDonald, chief analyst at EV data firm Chargeonomics, who tracks the state awards.

Tuesday's separate lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, addresses withholding of funds for two other programs: $1.8 billion for the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant program, as well as about $350 million for the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator program.

The lawsuit is led by attorneys general from California and Colorado, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, and the governor of Pennsylvania. All are Democrats.

After returning to office in January, Trump immediately ordered an end to what he has called Biden's “EV mandate.” While Biden targeted for half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030, his policies did not force American consumers to buy EVs or automakers to sell them.

Biden did set stringent tailpipe emissions and fuel economy rules in an effort to encourage more widespread EV adoption, as the auto industry would have had to meet both sets of requirements with a greater number of EVs in their sales mix. Under the Biden administration, consumers could also receive up to $7,500 in tax incentives off the price of an EV purchase, a program that congressional Republicans ended last fall.

The Trump administration has proposed rolling back both tailpipe emissions rules and the gas mileage standards and eliminated fines to automakers for not meeting those standards.

Trump has also repeated incorrect information about the status of the federal charging programs; without all of the funds available, only a fraction of what was obligated has been spent so far.

“We had to have an electric car within a very short period of time, even though there was no way of charging them and lots of other things,” Trump said in a Dec. 3 press conference about the proposed weakened fuel economy rules. “In certain parts of the Midwest, they spent -- to build nine chargers they spent $8 billion. So, that wasn’t working out too well.”

The lawsuit comes amid those regulatory changes and as the pace of EV sales have slowed in the U.S. as mainstream buyers remain concerned about both charging availability and the price of the vehicles.

New EVs sold for an average of $58,638 last month, compared with $49,814 for a new vehicle overall, according to auto buying resource Kelley Blue Book.

Automakers, meanwhile, have responded to consumers accordingly.

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. announced it was pivoting away from its once-ambitious, multi-billion dollar electrification strategy in lieu of more hybrid-electric and more fuel-efficient gasoline-powered vehicles.

In the spring, Honda Motor Co. also said it would take a significant step back from its EV efforts.

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference at the Department of Transportation in Washington, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)