Bolt brings financial services to drivers with Airwallex
Bolt is building a new financial offering for drivers and couriers, Bolt Money, powered by Airwallex. By embedding financial services directly into the Bolt platform, Bolt is creating a simpler way for driver and courier partners to access, manage, and spend their earnings.
Bolt is a global mobility platform with ride-hailing, scooter and e-bike rentals, car-sharing, and food delivery services in over 50 countries and 850 cities. The Bolt platform connects over 200 million customers to convenient, affordable transport and delivery services, while supporting flexible earning opportunities for more than 4.5 million driver, courier, and merchant partners.
Industry
Mobility
Company size
4,000 employees
Location
Tallinn, Berlin, Warsaw, Bucharest, Lisbon, London, and more.
Airwallex products used
Introducing Bolt
Every day, millions of people use Bolt to get where they’re going, while millions of driver and courier partners access flexible earning opportunities through the platform.
As a global mobility platform spanning ride-hailing, micromobility, and food delivery, Bolt operates a complex financial ecosystem. Its driver and courier partners earn through Bolt, but traditionally manage their earnings and everyday spending through separate financial experiences.
Bolt saw an opportunity to bring those experiences closer together, giving drivers and couriers a more useful way to access and manage their money through the platform they already use.
The challenge
Bolt wanted to simplify access to available earnings
Bolt's Driver and Courier Partners use the platform to receive their earnings quickly, wherever they are, in whatever currency they hold. Delivering that experience at global scale requires financial infrastructure that can move money efficiently across markets while giving Bolt the flexibility to build new experiences on top of it.
Bolt initially partnered with Airwallex to improve payout operations for driver partners in Canada. An Airwallex Business Account gave Bolt the foundation to receive, hold, and pay out funds efficiently.
As the relationship developed, Bolt saw that Airwallex's broader licensing and financial infrastructure could enable something bigger: bringing earnings and everyday spending together inside the Bolt platform.
The solution
Bolt is building a financial experience for drivers
Bolt is now building Bolt Money, a new financial offering powered by Airwallex.
The vision is to give driver and courier partners a wallet and a card for everyday spending, along with access to their Bolt earnings. Instead of earning money in one place and managing it somewhere else, drivers can access and use their funds through the platform.
Airwallex provides the financial infrastructure behind this experience, including the accounts, payouts, licensing, and card issuing capabilities that Bolt needs to build and scale the product.
What changes for Bolt
Eligible partners can access available funds in real time
Bolt Money is designed to give drivers greater visibility and access to their earnings throughout the day. Rather than waiting until the scheduled payout cycle, drivers can see what they’ve earned and use that money straight away.
Drivers have an optional way to manage available funds
Bolt is offering an optional, integrated way to access eligible funds. Drivers can have their own wallet and card, giving them a simpler way to manage their money without moving funds between different apps.
Bolt is able to build financial services into its platform
By embedding financial services directly into Bolt, the company can build around drivers’ and courier partners’ needs rather than sending them elsewhere to manage their money. This creates a connected experience while giving Bolt a foundation to continue building on.
The results
A new financial experience for drivers
Bolt Money brings financial services directly into the platform used by driver and courier partners, creating a connected way to access and manage earnings.
Immediate access to earnings
The experience is designed around how drivers earn: giving them visibility into their earnings as they happen and making those funds available to use without waiting for a traditional payout cycle.
A foundation for future financial services
Airwallex provides the infrastructure Bolt needs to build and scale its financial offering, from accounts and payouts to licensing and card issuing.
One partner behind the experience
With Airwallex providing the underlying financial infrastructure through a single integration, Bolt can focus on building the experience for its drivers while benefiting from a foundation designed to support its growth.
Edgars Kokins
Managing Director, Bolt Money
“Having the right financial infrastructure is really important. Airwallex gave us that foundation from day one: the licensing, the accounts, the payouts, and the card issuing, through one partner and one integration. Knowing that we can build and scale confidently with Airwallex is what lets us focus on the experience itself.”
See how our customers are finding Airwallex
“We used to use Stripe integrated with Xero. We would send out our invoices to a US-based book store, for example, and they would pay us in USD, which our bank would then automatically convert to AUD. But in many instances, we would rather keep the funds in USD so that we could then pay US-based vendors. The unnecessary currency conversions at high exchange rates meant we were getting ripped off at every stage. Then we switched to Airwallex for payments acceptance, transfers, and global accounts."
Jon Tse
Co-Founder, Karst
"Having all our global SaaS subscriptions in one place has streamlined our finance processes and enabled better tracking and control of expenses. It’s even better knowing that Airwallex isn’t hitting us with any international transaction fees."
Warren Durling
Chief Operating Offer, Paloma
“When you’re dealing with large amounts of money you want things to be as simple, straightforward and intuitive-to-use as possible, and that’s what Airwallex provides us. It’s a one-stop-shop.”
Jack Grace
Founder, Lux Skin
“If you have staff, suppliers or customers overseas, then your business should be using Airwallex. It’s a fantastic product backed by a wonderful customer care team who will answer all your questions and ensure you get onboarded properly and know how to use the product.”
Dale Beaumont
Founder and CEO, Business Blueprint
“With such a diverse customer base and supplier network needing to be paid in a wide variety of currencies, we needed a simple, smart solution to our financial processes - and that’s where Airwallex came in.”
Jon Tse
Co-Founder, Karst
“The Airwallex Global Cards are incredibly convenient for business owners. I use them every day, either online or through my phone. It’s such an intuitive user experience and I have full visibility over what’s being spent on the cards and where - all in one simple system.”
Jon Tse
Co-founder, Karst
"One thing was clear: We needed a simple-to-use, truly global financial solution that allowed us to seamlessly accept money from customers in multiple markets convert it to other currencies only when needed, and pay vendors in different countries. In other words, we needed to trade globally - not just Australia.”
Richard Li
Co-founder & CEO, July
