Taxi-hailing app Didi sells stake in Bolt to win over regulators

DIDI, the Chinese ride-hailing app, has given up a stake in European rival Bolt worth hundreds of millions as it faces growing pressure from regulators.

It has emerged that Didi has sold its investments in Bolt, which operates in seven cities in the UK, as it prepares to challenge the Estonian company alongside Uber.

But, as The Daily Telegraph revealed last week, the company has suspended plans to launch in the UK and Europe amid concerns over its data standards and amid heavy scrutiny in China.

Beijing authorities have forced the company to remove its app from download stores and restricted its ability to sign up new users amid a cybersecurity investigation triggered by concerns about user data leaving China.

MPS, meanwhile, had warned that allowing Didi to launch in the UK could mean personal and location data being transferred to China and potentially passed to the government, due to Beijing’s national security laws that compel companies to obey such data requests.

Local reports suggested Didi sold its stake in Bolt for about €500m (£428m)

in recent months, potentially as part of preparations to challenge the ride-hailing company as it aims to expand beyond its key Asian markets.

It is unclear if the sale was related to a €600m fundraising that Bolt announced earlier this month.

A spokesman for Bolt said: “As we grow and become more mature, we want to make sure we’re an independent company, which enables us to move fast and make the right decisions.”

Didi is China’s biggest ride-hailing company and listed in New York at a $68bn (£49bn) valuation last month.

However, its shares crashed after Chinese regulators targeted the company, having reportedly been displeased with its decision to raise money in the US. Beijing is now introducing laws requiring certain hi-tech Chinese companies to list domestically.

Didi had secured licences in several UK cities as part of plans to launch across Europe in the coming months, but has suspended the plans for at least a year over concerns about how it would handle users’ data.

Bolt launched in London in 2019 and has become the UK’S second-biggest ride hailing service after Uber. Didi first invested in the company in 2017, when it was known as Taxify.

A Didi spokesman did not comment.