Will the next cab off the rank for Rocket Internet‘s global expansion plans be the taxi app space? The incubator is pouring another $15 million (€11.45m) into Easy Taxi, an example of such a platform in Latin America, through its subsidiary in the region, Latin America Internet Holding, which is also partly owned by telco Millicom.
The principle behind Easy Taxi is a familiar one – use the mobile app, which comes on iOS, Android and BlackBerry, to order a cab directly when you need one. It includes features such as sending you details of the driver and car as well as real-time geolocation of the cab. Founded in Brazil in 2011, Easy Taxi now has more than 30,000 drivers in its network and has notched up nearly a million downloads. It is operating in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Malaysia and South Korea.
Dennis Wang, head of international expansion at Easy Taxi, said the new money would be used to further develop the apps, support further growth and improve the customer service provision.
CEO and co-founder Tallis Gomes pointed to innovative ideas as to why his company has seen the success it has, such as the mobile library-style Bibliotaxi, where users can borrow books from the taxis, and tackling drink driving. He said: “We also take our social responsibility very seriously, and in addition to simply ambitioning [sic] to make traffic better in big cities, we are now a major player in the Don’t Drink And Drive campaigns across the markets we operate, having established partnerships with bars and restaurants to promote responsible drinking.”
The taxi app space has proved to be a major success, with a mature market already existing in places such as the US and Europe. In Germany, players include myTaxi, Taxi.de, taxi.eu, BetterTaxi and, at the luxury end of the market, Uber.