[비즈한국] Over the past few weeks, the European startup scene has been shaken by announcements of acquisitions of renowned startups. In particular, news that global platform companies from North America are acquiring—or considering the acquisition of—European startups as a bridgehead for expansion into Europe has garnered significant attention. These acquisition battles in the mobility and AI sectors are expected to influence the startup ecosystem for years to come.
Lyft Pursues Acquisition of FREENOW to Expand into European Market
On April 16, U.S. mobility platform Lyft announced that it would acquire the Germany-based mobility startup FREENOW for approximately 175 million euros (210 billion won). FREENOW is a comprehensive European mobility app centered on taxi services, providing services in nine European countries and over 150 cities. With a single FREENOW app, users can access various modes of transport, including taxis, private hire vehicles (PHV), car sharing, vehicle rentals, electric scooters, electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, and public transit.
BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Mobility are the primary shareholders of FREENOW, which is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Through this acquisition, Lyft aims to move beyond its North American-centric limitations and expand its business territory into the European market. Notably, unlike the private driver-centric model led by Uber, Lyft has focused on the taxi business that FREENOW has concentrated on over the past few years. This is because FREENOW recently achieved 13% annual growth and reached a break-even point thanks to its strategy of focusing on the taxi business. Lyft aims to simultaneously secure revenue and entry into the European market by advocating for "taxi-based legal mobility" and attempting an approach optimized for the European regulatory environment.
With this acquisition, the only remaining "Made in Europe" brand in the sector will be its Estonia-based competitor, Bolt. Bolt has sounded an alarm regarding European mobility sovereignty, stating, "Now we are the last remaining European alternative." BMW and Mercedes-Benz hold stakes in Bolt, as well as in Blacklane, a premium global chauffeur service provider that operates limousines. As a result, everyone is keeping a close watch on how Lyft's acquisition of FREENOW will affect the European mobility platform landscape in the future.
Lyft expects this acquisition to increase its total bookings by approximately 1.14 billion dollars annually and expects personal vehicle trips to exceed 300 billion annually. Lyft CEO David Risher remarked, "Entering Europe is an important step in our ambitious journey to build the world’s best customer-oriented mobility platform." While there will be no immediate changes to the experience for existing FREENOW customers, it is expected that in the long term, it will be integrated with Lyft, allowing users to utilize the app in both North America and Europe.
DoorDash in Acquisition Talks for Deliveroo… Reshaping the Food Delivery Market
Another major deal is taking place in the food delivery market. The U.S.-based DoorDash has made an acquisition offer of approximately 2.7 billion pounds (5.0212 trillion won) to the leading British food delivery startup, Deliveroo. Following this announcement, Deliveroo's stock price rose by 18%, marking the highest increase since 2021.
Although Deliveroo was valued at 7.6 billion pounds (14.67 trillion won) when it went public in 2021, it has struggled due to changing consumption patterns after the pandemic and deteriorating profitability. As of 2024, the average number of active users reached 7.1 million, but the company consistently recorded losses. However, it recently succeeded in turning its first annual profit through restructuring and business downsizing, despite facing various risks.
Deliveroo has expanded its user base by providing non-food delivery services such as flowers and stationery, in addition to food delivery. This strategy is identical to that of DoorDash in the U.S. If DoorDash succeeds in acquiring Deliveroo, it will likely pursue a strategy of building a global delivery network connecting the U.S. and Europe. However, this will not be easy, as the European delivery market continues to stagnate and competition is intensifying.
Germany's Leading AI Firm Aleph Alpha Strengthens AI B2B Solutions via Acquisition of thingsThinking
The acquisition trend originating in Europe has also continued in the AI sector. German AI startup Aleph Alpha acquired thingsThinking, a company specializing in AI natural language processing. thingsThinking is an AI startup founded in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2017, established based on 14 years of research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
The company focuses on meaning-based Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology as its core competency, emphasizing the interpretation of sentence meaning rather than simple word analysis. Unlike existing keyword-based Natural Language Processing (NLP), it operates "semantha," an AI platform that performs tasks by grasping the semantics of concepts. Semantha is highly useful in industries where document interpretation is crucial, such as automotive, insurance, law, and finance, by utilizing features like document comparison, contract analysis, regulatory compliance verification, and internal corporate searches.
Along with Mistral AI in France, Aleph Alpha is a leading German AI startup that is receiving significant attention in Europe. In 2023, it attracted 500 million dollars (650 billion won) in funding, marking the largest investment for a European AI startup. It was originally noted as an LLM developer to compete with OpenAI, but it is currently pivoting by focusing on B2B AI solutions. Through this acquisition, Aleph Alpha plans to reinforce its industry- and financial-service-specific language processing technology and expand its "PhariaAI" product line.
Amid intense competition among LLM-centered AI companies such as OpenAI, Google’s Gemini, and China’s DeepSeek, the European AI ecosystem is shifting from LLM-centric competition to industry-specific B2B competition. The aforementioned cases show that global platform companies are not just acquiring startups, but are also recalibrating their strategic positioning.
Lyft is strengthening its taxi platform, DoorDash its food delivery network, and Aleph Alpha its industrial AI solutions, all to secure technical and geographical competitive advantages. This series of acquisitions clearly demonstrates how startups should respond to market downturns or technological changes. Struggling companies find new breakthroughs through acquisitions, while strong companies use acquisitions to focus on core technologies and internalize market dominance rather than just pursuing superficial growth. Furthermore, they are executing smart expansions by responding to local regulations through regional specialization strategies that account for European characteristics.
The author, Lee Eun-seo, majored in law in Korea and studied theater in Berlin. Based in Berlin, a city of art and a hub for European startups, she leads 123factory, connecting the startup ecosystems of Korea and Germany while growing alongside the city.