The Strategist

Gett taxi service attracts $ 80 million investment



06/08/2018 - 12:11



International taxi and logistics service Gett closed another $ 80 million investment round from Access Industries, Baring Vostok, MCI and Volkswagen Group. The company expects to become profitable in the first quarter of 2019. Given that Gett planned to attract way more investment, it seems that the service may refuse to seriously compete with Uber, the market participants say.



pixabay
pixabay
The main shareholders of Gett, including Access Industries, Baring Vostok, MCI and Volkswagen Group, invested $ 80 million in the company, it follows from Gett’s message. The round was estimated at $ 1.4 billion, and it is the first time when the company disclosed the sum. The total amount of investments attracted by Gett exceeded $ 700 million, of which $ 300 million came from Volkswagen.

The Gett service (formerly GetTaxi) was created in 2010. It allow customers to order taxi and delivery via smart phones. The company operates in 120 cities in four key markets: Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia. In the US, the service operates only in New York under the Juno brand, which Gett bought in April 2017 for $ 200 million. Among the co-owners of Gett is also Swedish Vostok New Ventures and Russian Inventure Partners.

Gett’s founder Dave Waiser expects that the service will become profitable in all countries of presence by the first quarter of 2019, with the exception of R&D developments. According to him, the fastest growing market for the company is New York, where 45,000 drivers are connected to Juno. In other words,  it is more than 50% of all drivers with licenses. Most of its annual revenue of $ 1 billion Gett receives from corporate customers, whose base totals 13 thousand companies, Mr. Waiser told to TechCrunch.

$ 80 million is significantly less than the company wanted to attract: Gett was looking for an investment of $ 700 million estimated close to $ 2 billion, hiring Wells Fargo & Co. and Credit Suisse, Bloomberg reported in April 2017, citing sources.

To date, Gett occupies a leading position in the European market and is available in more than 120 cities around the world, including Moscow, Tel Aviv, London and New York. The company was founded in 2010 and simultaneously began to develop service for both private and corporate clients. Nowadays, Gett is leading in the segment of corporate transportation, having more than 12 000 corporate clients.

In April 2017, Gett announced takeover of another Israeli company - Juno. The deal amounted to $ 200 million.

source: bloomberg.com