Ride sharing service “FREE NOW” which took over from Romanian startup company “Clever” has announced that they will end their activity in Romania from September 2022.

The service, which is very similar to Uber and Bolt, has often been considered as one of the more competitive service providers, with generally lower pricing and also the unique ability to request a taxi directly through the app, instead of exclusively offering private cars.

The platform owners sent an email to their customers stating,

“We regret to inform you that the FREE NOW app will no longer be available for our users in Romania as of September 1, 2022. We have made the decision to cease operations in this country with great difficulty, and we will always remain extremely grateful to our passengers and drivers who were part of the FREE NOW story in Romania.

We will continue to focus on current investments in key markets in Europe, where our multimobility offering is growing.”

It had been rumoured for a long time, that the company had not been making profits in Romania, especially since the costs of fuel have increased considerably.

Bolt and Uber remain as the two ride-sharing services in Cluj, however Uber has been plagued with unreliable services, such as drivers canceling at the last minute or sometimes no drivers accepting rides at all. Bolt prices also have increased over the past few months, with peak times sometimes being more than double the price of a standard taxi.