How John Mahjoubi turned hypergrowth chaos into an agentic AI-led source-to-pay engine…

Bolt has never been a company that waits.

From moving its first passengers in Tallinn to scaling across more than 850 cities and serving over 200 million customers in 50+ countries, its story has been defined by speed, ambition, and an almost obsessive focus on winning markets. Ride-hailing, micromobility, car-sharing, delivery, groceries; five business lines running simultaneously across a 4,000-strong workforce that still operates with the instincts of a startup. Growth was not linear – it was exponential. And like most companies that scale at that pace, the front office raced ahead while the back office quietly struggled to keep up.

Procurement, in particular, was never designed for this level of complexity. It wasn’t broken; it simply didn’t exist as a function. There were no structured purchase order processes, no centralised sourcing function, no unified contracting framework. Every country operated independently. Invoices – all 120,000 of them per year – were processed manually. More than 20,000 suppliers were onboarded with limited governance. Across 50+ countries, there were 50+ ways to buy. The machinery of spend was running, but it was running on instinct rather than architecture.

What Bolt needed wasn’t incremental improvement. It needed a reinvention of procurement itself: one that could match the company’s DNA: fast, intuitive, global and intelligent.

That’s where the partnership with Zycus becomes central to this story. Not as a software vendor, but as the architect of something far more ambitious: an agentic AI-powered autonomous procurement platform, built on a truly comprehensive source-to-pay suite, designed to operate at the speed of Bolt. 7+ modules. Globally. Built from zero. A five-year strategic partnership. This was not a technology purchase. It was a bet on the future of procurement itself.

At the centre of this transformation is John Mahjoubi, Bolt’s Global Procurement Director and CPO, who stepped into chaos and chose not to control it, but to redesign it from the ground up.

What follows is not just a transformation story. It is a blueprint for what procurement becomes when AI, architecture and ambition align.

Bolt is a company synonymous with scale and speed. What does that actually look like from the inside of a procurement function?

Mahjoubi: “It’s intense, in the best possible way. Ride-hailing, micromobility, car-sharing, delivery, groceries – each one operating almost like its own ecosystem, with its own supplier base, its own cost structures, its own regulatory requirements. And we have over 4,000 people, who we call Badgers, across all of these markets. But what defines Bolt is not just scale – it is how quickly that scale was achieved. The company grew by empowering people to move fast, make decisions and win markets. That creates a very unique environment. It is incredibly dynamic, but it also means not everything grows at the same pace.”

And procurement was one of those areas that had not kept pace with the business?

“That’s a polite way of putting it. The reality was, procurement had not been formalised at all. There were no structured PO processes. Sourcing was not centralised. Every country had its own way of doing things. 50+ countries, 4,000+ Badgers, 50+ ways to buy. The word I used on stage was chaos and I meant it.

People were buying what they needed, when they needed it. Suppliers were onboarded after services were already delivered. Invoices were processed manually. Every single one of them.

Now, to be clear, that was not dysfunction. That was hypergrowth. The company was focused on winning, and it succeeded spectacularly. But when you reach a certain scale, you need a different operating model.”

There is a striking irony you have spoken about: Bolt could move 200 million people seamlessly, but could not move a purchase order. How did that land with you when you stepped into the role?

“It was one of those moments where you step back and think: this is both incredible and unsustainable. We had built one of the most efficient mobility platforms in the world. But internally, something as fundamental as raising a purchase order was not standardised. That contrast became the burning platform. We were not broken. We simply did not exist as a function. And once you see it that way, you are not fixing – you are building from zero.”

What made transformation particularly challenging in Bolt’s environment?

“Three things, all at once: scale and speed of growth, culture and technology.

On scale: We were in hypergrowth and the entire company was laser-focused on the front office – growth. Back-office functions weren’t forgotten, but they certainly weren’t first.

On culture: Bolt is a startup at heart, even at its current size. It runs on autonomy. People do not respond well to rigid policies or heavy processes. If something slows them down, they will find a way around it. The culture is very much ‘done is driven’.

On technology: we had built native solutions for the front office, but procurement had no core capabilities. There was no strategy for it. No platform. Nothing to build on.

So the challenge was: how do you introduce control without killing speed? That is not a technology problem. That is an operating model problem.”

You tested a wide range of platforms before selecting Zycus. What became clear through that evaluation?

“We tested everyone and evaluated them thoroughly. What became clear was that many solutions still carried legacy constraints, rigid workflows, and fragmented user experiences across the process. Others were strong in specific areas, such as intake, but lacked a true end-to-end source-to-pay capability or the ability to support autonomous sourcing and negotiation. 

For Bolt, that separation was exactly the problem we were trying to solve. We did not want to assemble procurement from different components or adapt our operating model to fit the limitations of individual tools. We needed something that could work as a connected, end-to-end system from day one, with intelligence embedded across the entire flow – not added on later.

Zycus’ Merlin Agentic AI Platform was the clear choice – full intake-to-outcomes capability under one roof, no cobbled-together tools. The vision they demonstrated? We didn’t just like it. We shared it and aligned with it completely.”

What specifically made Zycus stand out?

“Four things. First, shared vision. From the very first conversation, Zycus talked about the future of source-to-pay; the role of AI, the roadmap. They were not selling us what they had today. They were showing us where procurement was going, and it aligned with where we wanted to be.

Second, transparency. Zycus told us what they couldn’t do. That built more trust than any perfect demo ever could. During implementation, there were difficult scope discussions, moments where things were simply not possible, and they were openly called out. That honesty is what made the partnership work.

Third, end-to-end S2P depth. This wasn’t intake-only, not P2P-only – it was a full suite across 7+ modules. That mattered enormously to us.

And fourth, the co-innovation model. This is a five-year partnership with a roadmap tailored to Bolt’s priorities. We are not just customers; we are shaping the product.”

You mentioned 7+ modules, globally, built from zero. Describe the scope of what you are deploying.

“This isn’t a module deployment. It is one platform, one process, every market. Phase 1 is live. Our full Source-to-Contract capability: Merlin Intake for S2C, iSource for RFx and bidding, iSupplier for onboarding and supplier relationship management, iContract for CLM lifecycle.

Phase 2 is launching now. Procure-to-Pay, going live in March 2026: Merlin Intake 4.0 for P2P, eProcurement for catalogue and PO, eInvoicing for AP automation, AP Smart Desk for exception AI, and Supplier Portal for self-service.

From zero to full S2P and Merlin AI in months. Not years. That is what this partnership has delivered.”

You have described Zycus’s approach as ‘agentic.’ For readers who may not be steeped in the AI conversation, what does that mean in practice?

“We didn’t want procurement to be something people learn. We wanted it to be something that guides them. The idea is simple: you do not expect users to understand procurement processes. The system should understand the user. That is what Merlin agentic AI enables.

With Zycus, the intake layer becomes the entry point – a kind of intelligent interface that takes the user through the journey, makes decisions, routes requests, and ensures compliance in the background. So, instead of forms and workflows, you get something closer to a guided experience.

Our vision for how procurement should work is built around an Intake Management Control Tower – eProcurement, sourcing, supplier risk and performance management, contracting, spend analytics – all connected through one intelligent layer. That’s a completely different paradigm.”

What were the biggest operational pain points you prioritised?

“Invoice processing was a big one. We handle around 120,000 invoices a year, and all of them were processed manually. Coding, approvals, tax decisions – it was a huge operational burden. Then supplier onboarding. We had over 20,000 vendors, onboarding hundreds more every month, with very limited control. And finally, the lack of structured sourcing and contracting. Sourcing cycle times were unacceptable. These were not just inefficiencies; they were risks.”

Bolt operates in a very modern, Slack-driven environment. Did that shape the design?

“Absolutely. We don’t operate on email. Everything happens in Slack. So, if procurement sits in a separate system, adoption becomes a challenge immediately. What we’ve built is an experience where requests, approvals, and interactions happen within the tools people already use, while Zycus runs the intelligence and governance in the background.

That’s how you drive real adoption: by embedding procurement into the flow of work. The user experience has gone from ‘procurement slows teams down’ to a Slack-native experience with great adoption and genuine promoters across the business.”

The speed of this transformation is remarkable. How are you achieving that pace?

“Focus and partnership. We broke the implementation into phases, starting with Source-to-Contract, and now moving into Procure-to-Pay. But more importantly, we aligned internally and worked very closely with Zycus as a single partner.

For any project to succeed, it always depends on the team. It was not only the Zycus project team that has been all in on this – we have seen equally strong support and teamwork on the Bolt side. Round-the-clock discussions, continuous feedback, collaborative testing. Each phase has been a collaboration masterpiece from both teams. That combination of clear vision, strong internal ownership, and a unified platform, allowed us to go from zero to full S2P in months, not years. That pace is quite unusual for transformations of this scale.”

What role did leadership alignment play?

“A huge one.From day one, we involved leadership across the organisation – CEO, direct reports, country managers. This was not positioned as a procurement initiative, but positioned as a business transformation. That makes a significant difference when you need people across 50+ countries to change how they work.”

How would you describe procurement’s evolution inside Bolt today?

“It has gone from blocker to enabler. We’re not at the finish line, but we’re well into the journey, and the progress is good. Procurement used to be something people encountered after the fact, if at all. Scattered emails. No governance. No audit trail. That’s behind us now.

We’ve built a fit-for-purpose operating model, surrounded ourselves with a team of superstars, and fundamentally redefined what procurement means to this business. The relationship with our stakeholders isn’t transactional anymore. It’s a genuine partnership, and the value we’re delivering reflects that. Now, we’re focused on making the transformation complete.

Zycus is the final piece – bringing intelligent, guided, self-service procurement into one connected experience. Intake through to outcomes. Sourcing, contracting, supplier management, and invoice processing are all joined up. And because it’s embedded in Slack, where our people already work, adoption isn’t a battle. It’s natural. The foundation is solid. The team is ready. We’re finishing what we started.”

Looking ahead, what does success look like—and where does Zycus fit in that future state?

“Success is delivering real value and being recognised for it. The goal is for people across the business to say “we have a great procurement organisation” not because we’ve automated for automation’s sake, but because we’ve built something that genuinely serves the business end to end.

We are working towards a self-serve and autonomous model that covers the full procurement lifecycle from supplier onboarding and contracting through to the majority of purchase-to-pay actions where the business can move quickly without being dependent on procurement as a bottleneck. Processes run through a modern, connected tech stack with minimal manual intervention, and procurement operates as an intelligent, value-generating function rather than a set of administrative tasks.

Zycus is central to that vision. What they have built is not just a Source-to-Pay suite, but a foundation for end-to-end procurement excellence from intake to outcomes. And for a company like Bolt, that’s exactly what we need: a platform that doesn’t just support growth, but scales with it intelligently, and helps us deliver the kind of procurement experience the business actually notices.”

About John Mahjoubi

John Mahjoubi is Global Procurement Director and CPO at Bolt, the European mobility super-app spanning 50+ countries and serving over 200 million customers. He was recognised with the High Performing Leader Award at Zycus Horizon EU & UK 2026 – a reflection of what he’s built at Bolt: a global, AI-led procurement function stood up from scratch, in a hypergrowth tech environment.

Before Bolt, Mahjoubi honed his craft across procurement and operations leadership in Banking, BPO, and FMCG. Tech is a new arena, but the results speak for themselves.

Check out the full edition of CPOstrategy here.