Lyft Pays $197 Million to Pick Up German Taxi App FreeNow

Lyft is expanding into Europe with its $197 million purchase of taxi app FreeNow.

The deal, announced Wednesday (April 16), will see Lyft acquire the Germany-based company from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility. It also marks the ride-hailing service’s largest expansion outside of North America.

“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,” Lyft CEO David Risher said in a news release.

“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.”

The deal will allow Lyft to fuel growth in more than 150 cities across Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The company added that the acquisition is expected to almost double Lyft’s total addressable market to more than 300 billion personal vehicle trips per year, increasing annualized gross bookings by approximately 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

Lyft recently announced it plans to begin adding autonomous vehicles (AVs) to its ridesharing platform as soon as this summer.

“And over time, AVs will account for a larger share of cars, and a larger percentage of rides,” Jeremy Bird, executive vice president of driver experience at Lyft, wrote in a post on the company’s blog last month.

He also addressed how the arrival of AVs could affect human drivers already offering their services for Lyft. Bird acknowledged the company was still wrestling with that question, but said Lyft expects there will still be opportunities for drivers because the addition of AVs doesn’t have to mean there will be fewer rides to be served by drivers.

“Adding cars to our platform — whether they’re driven by humans or AVs — improves arrival times and creates a better rider experience,” Bird wrote. “That gets people to take more rides, creating more opportunities for drivers.”

Meanwhile, Lyft rival Uber said this week that it had opened up a waiting list for riders who want to take part in its AV offering in Atlanta in partnership with Google-owned Waymo.

“With 14 AV partners to date — and tens of thousands of autonomous trips happening every month — we’re excited to expand our years-long partnership with Waymo, recently bringing autonomous rides to Austin, and soon Atlanta, exclusively through the Uber app,” Uber said.