"I'm proud to say, we have a talented, strong and dynamic team in Georgia" - Miki Kuusi Exclusive Interview with Wolt Co-Founder and CEO

Wolt's mission is to bring joy and simplicity to everyday life, as well as more earnings to the neighborhoods of the world.

In the ten years since Wolt was created by six co-founders, including Miki Kuusi, in Helsinki, Finland, the business has grown from one to 28 countries, from six to over 13,000 employees, and expanded from the delivery of food to the delivery of (almost) everything – groceries, TVs, prescription drugs, pet food, flowers and much more. In the last year alone, its retail business has doubled. Today, it also sells over a billion euros worth of groceries a year. Joining forces with DoorDash in 2022 has further accelerated the company's growth.

Wolt launched in Georgia in 2018, the first country outside of the European Union, with just 8 employees, 30 courier partners, and 100 restaurant partners. Due to its rapid growth and market leadership position, the company now counts 600 employees, 7,000 courier partners, and over 3,000 merchant partners spanning retail stores and food outlets across the country.

"I'm proud to say, we have a talented, strong and dynamic team in Georgia," says Miki Kuusi, Wolt's co-founder and CEO. Kuusi, a man with extensive experience, has been named by Forbes among the 30 under 30 most influential people in the consumer technology industry. He is also ranked 32nd on Wired's list of the 100 most influential people in tech.

Kuusi is also known globally as a co-founder of the technology conference Slush, which has grown from a 150-person local event in Helsinki in 2011 to a global forum with over 15,000 participants from more than 80 countries each year.

In the summer of 2022 the transaction between Wolt and DoorDash closed andWolt officially joined forces with DoorDash - a leading local commerce platform in the US. Since then,Kuusi has been responsible for leading all of DoorDash's international business outside the U.S, including also Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Combined, DoorDash and Wolt operate over in 30 countries today.

"Georgia is a very interesting and unique country" – we start our interview with one of the leaders of a major technology company by discussing his impressions of Georgia. Despite a busy schedule in Tbilisi, he took a few minutes to explain why the Georgian market is important for Wolt and why Georgia was the first country outside the EU for their expansion.

"Because of our business, we see Georgia from a unique angle - every kilometer offers different cuisines, cultures, and customs which we want customers to be able to easily explore, while adding sales for merchants and earnings for courier partners. Georgians are warm, hospitable and the consumer culture here is distinct. Wolt operates in 8 cities in Georgia, reflecting its incredible diversity. We're proud that Georgia was the first country outside the European Union we entered. And talented people, strong institutions, and openness to technology were key reasons for our choice," says Miki Kuusi.

We've heard multiple times that Wolt is a brand based on values and a platform for opportunities. As the leader of the company, how do you define the values that underpin your business?

• "Wolt may be young but it's a strong brand, having just turned 10 years old.. We're focused on the future and we are driven by a desire to make a positive impact in all of the communities where we operate. We want to offer the best online shopping experience for consumers, while helping merchants reach sales online, and provide courier partners access to additional earnings. In short, we're a platform for possibilities and opportunities."

How satisfied are you with the local management, and what can you tell us about the strength of Wolt's team in Georgia?

• In Georgia, we've built a talented, strong and dynamic team that acts as a powerhouse managing operations across the region. Our Tbilisi office is thriving with talented young people and I'm proud to say we've grown from a humble 9 sqm office in the city to a major player with over 600 team members. Today, we're one of the region's largest employers and our platform connects over 7,000 couriers and 3,000 merchants. In fact, the 8 people who started at Wolt when we first launched in Georgia are still with us today, many now in leadership roles at our Tbilisi HQ. And some people in the team have also moved on to exciting new opportunities within the Wolt family. Natalia Khizanishvili was previously Regional General Manager for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and recently took up a new role as General Manager for Japan.

Kuusi frequently highlights how much emphasis Wolt places on innovation, technology development, and introducing new solutions. He discusses future plans in this direction and mentions that creating continuous added value and offering new products to customers is a priority for Wolt.

"As a tech company, it is in our DNA to explore opportunities, build new solutions, improve the existing ones, and come up with novel innovations. We're obsessed with always improving the end-user experience - be it for our customers, merchants, courier partners, or our own team. It means that we're always building and testing new products and features. For example, we don't only build the Wolt customer app for people to order whatever they might need - we've also built an entire end-to-end solution for merchants to run their online business, as well as a world-class app for courier partners to run their delivery business. We also build our own internal tools to analyze, maintain and build the platform, as well as run the in-app chat between support and customers and partners. In addition to the technology side, we are an operations company - as an example we run our own grocery business with Wolt Market."

How does sustainability fit into Wolt's future plans, especially in Georgia?

"Sustainability is a key focus as we invest in ideas to reduce our environmental impact and support cities in meeting their climate targets. Ultimately, the better we do for local economies, the more we succeed. For example, using vehicles with a lower emissions footprint is a big opportunity for us. Just this year, we started reinvesting 100% of the funds we previously used for carbon offsets into initiatives that will actually reduce our carbon footprint. Right now approximately 8% of our deliveries in Georgia are "green" (bike or electric) and so we are looking for ways to significantly increase this over time. This includes helping couriers make the switch to low carbon transportation modes as soon as possible. We're also continuing to pilot dozens of new products and vehicles that have a potential to help us reduce our carbon emissions even further, which I'm personally incredibly excited about."