Luke Mackey, Ireland country manager at Bolt, with Oli Cavanagh, CEO and co-founder of Strike. Image: Bolt
The Irish fintech is teaming up with mobility company Bolt to tackle the issue of tipping in an increasingly cashless society.
Irish start-up Strike is bringing its contactless tipping tech to taxis in Dublin through a new partnership with Bolt.
Passengers will be able to tap the Strike tag or scan a QR code with their phone in a Bolt taxi, and pay digitally with Apple Pay or Google Pay. The driver will receive the tip instantly via Strike.
Dublin-based Strike was founded last year by fintech entrepreneurs Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd. It is developing payment technology that aims to easily enable cash-free tipping without the need for a payment terminal or a new app on a customer’s phone.
The company has raised €625,000 in seed funding and intends to seek a further €6.5m in investment by the end of 2021. It has also been bolstering its leadership team with the recent appointment of former Just Eat exec Edel Kinane as its chief growth officer.
Strike previously teamed up with Camile to enable contactless tipping for food delivery drivers, but it is now turning its attention to the taxi business with Bolt.
“Strike’s cashless tipping solves an everyday problem for both drivers and their passengers in an increasingly cashless society,” said Cavanagh.
“Our data is also showing surprisingly high tip values for drivers through Strike, possibly because of pent up demand among passengers. People are being really generous and we are delighted that Bolt is partnering with us to roll out this technology to their thousands of drivers.”
European mobility company Bolt launched its taxi-hailing app in Ireland last December and, according to The Irish Times, has now signed up more than 1,000 drivers in Dublin. This week, the company also opened a hub for drivers in Dublin city centre.
“As the country begins to reopen, demand will rise but cash is not used as much and therefore tipping will be down,” said Luke Mackey, Ireland country manager for Bolt.
“Strike is a contactless and simple way for passengers to say thank you to the drivers.”
Bolt, which has around 50m customers in more than 40 countries, is eyeing further growth in Ireland. As well as taxi-hailing, it is planning to roll out e-scooter services on Irish roads when legislation allows, with the aim of creating a multimodal transport platform.
