Further Expansion: Lyft Focuses More on Canada
Lyft is further expanding its presence outside the United States. The ride-hailing company is opening a technology center in Toronto, Canada.
(Image: Raido CC-BY 2.0)
US ride-hailing company Lyft plans to open a new technology center in Toronto in the second half of next year. The company announced this on Thursday. The Canadian metropolis will thus become Lyft's second North American technology center, alongside its headquarters in San Francisco.
The new office will be located in the financial district in the center of Toronto and will employ several hundred employees from the areas of technology, product development, operations, and marketing, according to Lyft's statement. It is "an important milestone in Lyft's global growth strategy," the company added.
The ride-hailing company has been striving for some time to grow beyond its core market in the USA and, as part of this strategy, to strengthen its international presence. The company announced that rides in Canada increased by more than 20 percent in the first half of this year compared to the previous year. Toronto has been one of the company's most important international markets since the introduction of Lyft ride-sharing services in the metropolis in 2017. In addition, Lyft has had its own teams in Longueuil and Montreal in Canada for several years and operates bike rental programs in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, such as Bikeshare Toronto.
Lyft is also expanding into Germany
At the end of July, Lyft completed the acquisition of the German taxi dispatcher FreeNow for almost 175 million euros. With the takeover, Lyft is taking a big step into the European market. FreeNow operates in nine European countries and over 180 cities. Furthermore, Lyft has entered into a strategic partnership with the Chinese technology group Baidu to deploy robotaxis in Germany and the United Kingdom starting next year, and later across Europe.
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On Wednesday, Lyft also announced that it had acquired the luxury chauffeur service company TBR Global Chauffeuring for 83 million pounds (95 million euros) in cash plus contingent costs. TBR is active on six continents, in 120 countries, and over 3,000 cities.
(akn)
