Mobile taxi app myTaxi has landed €10 million in growth investment from car2go, Deutsche Telekom and Lars Hinrichs, the founder of XING and Hackfwd. Hamburg-based myTaxi is the largest worldwide taxi system with 800,000 app downloads and 7,000 registered taxi drivers.
Daimler subsidiary car2go will join the myTaxi board after acquiring a minority stake, while Lars Hinrichs is another addition to the group of shareholders. Existing investors T-Venture, the VC arm of Deutshe Telekom, and the KfWBankengruppe also contributed to the funding round, which will be used to “promote the rapid growth of the company.”
The app has been a huge hit since it was launched in March 2010 – it’s now the most popular and fastest growing taxi app in Europe with a market share of 80 percent. It allows users to order a taxi directly without having to track down an individual firm while offering a “transparent and fair pricing model.” Taxi drivers only pay small trip fees without having to pay any monthly fixed costs to dispatching centres.
“Our investment in and strategic partnership with myTaxi is a way for us to expand upon bridging the gaps in public transportation. The services of car2go and myTaxi do not compete, but complement each other so that they can be combined to meet the needs of urban transportation in a practical and convenient way,” said Robert Henrich, CEO of car2go.
Thomas Kiessling, chief product and innovation officer at Deutsche Telekom, said: “myTaxi is well in alignment with our strategy to increasing online services – partnerships with innovative start-ups is one example of how to accomplish this.” Lars Hinrichs added: “The digital ordering system will change the taxi market fundamentally. By being creative and revolutionary, myTaxi can become the leader of this billion-euro market in Europe.”
Niclaus Mewes, CEO and founder of myTaxi, said: “After Germany, Austria and Switzerland, countries such as England, Spain and the Netherlands will be targeted in co-operation with our new shareholders.”