Taxi booking app secures eight-figure backing from Temasek group

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#1
The taxi booking app is growing bigger. A US$10 mil funding is a strong vote of confidence on the app. I didn't use it before, must give it a try now...

Taxi booking app secures eight-figure backing from Temasek group

SINGAPORE — Third-party taxi booking app GrabTaxi has secured additional funding of at least US$10 million (S$12.6 million) from Vertex Venture Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

The investment of the unspecified “over-eight-figure sum in US dollars” is expected to help the company “tap into new markets and cement our leadership position”, said GrabTaxi founder and group CEO Anthony Tan.

The money will go into hiring talents such as engineers and coders who are “unfortunately not cheap”, said Mr Tan, and into further lateral market expansion such as the company has been doing so far, when it entered the Filipino market from Manila then expanded to Cebu.

The company currently operates in five countries and said in a press release that more than 250,000 people in the region use the app at least once a month, and that there is a taxi booking through GrabTaxi every two seconds across the region.

Mr Tan said that GrabTaxi has the second largest number of taxi drivers here, second only to ComfortDelGro, which has a fleet of 16,628 vehicles.

GrabTaxi’s competitor in Singapore, Easy Taxi, had told TODAY last month that they have 6,000 drivers and 50,000 regular users in its database.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/tax...asek-group
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
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#2
SoftBank investment means a lot to the company, and its future investors too. It seems GrabTaxi got the most attention among the taxi booking app in the region.

UPDATE 1-SoftBank invests $250 mln in Southeast Asian taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi

SINGAPORE, Dec 4 - Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank

Corp has pumped in $250 million to become the top

investor in Southeast Asian mobile taxi-booking application

GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, its biggest investment in a Southeast
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/upd...p-grabtaxi
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
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#3
Wa. Now Grabtaxi has Lots of money to burn. Probably will start giving phablets to taxi drivers to increase mkt share. From talk with taxi drivers, that seems to be a big hurdle. Some not willingly to buy tablets or bigger screen phones. And Grabtaxi taxi version only supports android.



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"... but quitting while you're ahead is not the same as quitting." - Quote from the movie American Gangster
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#4
More detail of the news.

GrabTaxi gets S$328.6 million investment from Japan’s Softbank

KUALA LUMPUR — Japanese telecommunications and Internet company Softbank Corp has invested US$250 million (S$328.6 million) in GrabTaxi, one of South-east Asia’s top taxi hailing apps.

The companies said in a joint statement today (Dec 4) that the funding will make Softbank the largest investor in GrabTaxi, a startup launched in Malaysia in 2012 that now operates in 17 cities in six South-east Asian countries.

GrabTaxi Chief Executive and founder Anthony Tan said SoftBank’s partnership brings total investment in the company to almost US$340 million.

Softbank’s expertise in mobile and Internet businesses will “further accelerate our growth,” Mr Tan said.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/grab...s-softbank

(04-12-2014, 11:05 AM)CityFarmer Wrote: SoftBank investment means a lot to the company, and its future investors too. It seems GrabTaxi got the most attention among the taxi booking app in the region.

UPDATE 1-SoftBank invests $250 mln in Southeast Asian taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi

SINGAPORE, Dec 4 - Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank

Corp has pumped in $250 million to become the top

investor in Southeast Asian mobile taxi-booking application

GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, its biggest investment in a Southeast
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/upd...p-grabtaxi
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
Reply
#5
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/transpor...rk-funding

GrabTaxi books US$250m in benchmark funding
Industry observers, however, warn of longer-term sustainability challenges for the Malaysia-based firm

By
Jacquelyn Cheokjaccheok@sph.com.sg@JacCheokBT
Even though the year-end holidays have begun to induce the usual lull in markets - and even on roads - here, the nascent taxi-booking app market is not taking things slow yet. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
5 Dec5:50 AM
Singapore

EVEN though the year-end holidays have begun to induce the usual lull in markets - and even on roads - here, the nascent taxi-booking app market is not taking things slow yet.

GrabTaxi on Thursday announced that it has raised US$250 million in Series D funding entirely from Japan's telecommunications and Internet group Softbank, in what is described as the highest fourth-stage financing for a startup in South-east Asia.

But while an "amazing achievement" for a regionally focused company, industry watchers warned of longer-term sustainability challenges.

The Malaysia-based taxi-booking platform, one of the region's largest in terms of usage volume (see infographic: How big is GrabTaxi?), told BT that it will remain focused on growth and expansion within the region even after the bumper funding.

"There are 600 million potential taxi passengers in the region and by staying focused, we are able to grow faster and provide better solutions for these people, so I wouldn't refer to it as a narrow focus," said founder Anthony Tan, whose family owns Malaysia-listed Tan Chong Motor.

"In fact, we would go deeper into solving more problems for our passengers in this region. Each of our six markets, including Singapore, stands to receive a significant portion of funding compared to those of larger players that have to stretch their funding much further . . . after all, GrabTaxi is a solution built by South-east Asians for South-east Asians," he said.

"We've been considerably lucky with our investors since we started . . . Softbank's experience with global giants like Alibaba and Tokopedia will be invaluable as we continue to grow the brand and establish our roots deeper in our markets."

The latest funding, which marks the two-year-old startup's fourth funding activity in 2014, takes the total amount raised to-date to an impressive US$340 million.

"I believe this funding will help GrabTaxi dominate the South-east Asia market," said Christopher Quek, director and resident mentor at Angels Gate Advisory. Other taxi-booking app companies here (such as San Francisco's Uber) come from other continents which may have the funds but are not focused just on the region.

While GrabTaxi does not disclose the volume of taxi bookings by market, it estimates that there are three bookings made through the app every second across the region. This comes up to an average of 259,200 bookings per day. In Singapore, GrabTaxi takes a cut of 30 Singapore cents for each immediate booking, and 60 Singapore cents for each advance booking. The rates differ from market to market.

Its eye-catching funding success notwithstanding, GrabTaxi is up against players with far deeper pockets.

"But against the big boys like Uber, which have earnings greater than US$1 billion a year, this Series D is very much needed," noted Vinnie Lauria, general partner at Golden Gate Ventures. "It's a winner-takes-all situation. If they don't double down now to put up a fight, they've lost."

Uber, the ride-sharing startup reportedly worth US$18 billion, has bagged about US$1.5 billion in funding since its founding in 2009. Other players such as Brazil-based Easy Taxi and London-based Hailo have each raised some US$77 million.

Such staggering amounts of money, said market watchers, are needed, given a marketplace scenario where app companies have to acquire both the demand and supply sides of the equation: In this case, taxi drivers and commuters. Among other things, they would need to pay taxi drivers to use their app, give them free smartphones, reward commuters for using their app and recommending it to their friends, said Mr Quek.

And doing so across multiple geographies only amplifies the costs, noted Kuo-Yi Lim, managing director of Monk's Hill Ventures. GrabTaxi, for instance, operates in 17 cities across the region.

"It is literally a cash-burning exercise where taxi-booking apps pay everyone to use their app. The aim is to be the dominant player for a period so that the others will fold up or leave the market," Mr Quek said. "Differentiation on these apps is limited; what customers want are readily-available taxis. So GrabTaxi, with the latest funds, can pay taxi drivers more and incentivise them to use GrabTaxi."

However, for the startup to be sustainable in the long-term, it's going to need to break out of South-east Asia, Mr Lauria said, suggesting new markets such as India, China and South America - all of which Uber already has a presence.

Mr Quek agreed that GrabTaxi needs a breakthrough to maintain its lead in the long term. "In the mid-term, it is sustainable. GrabTaxi will have a market lead in South-east Asia even though it will be draining its funds to maintain that. The other rivals will possibly see their market share diminishing.

"But in the long term, once GrabTaxi dominates, it will need to recover from the cash drain and eventually find a balance between charging commuters and taxi drivers. Alternatively, they may need to find a new business model to sustain this cash-draining exercise to maintain its dominance."

But for now at least, GrabTaxi's Mr Tan said that the company is more focused than ever on its mission to revolutionise the South-east Asian transport industry.

"We're still a young company, just past our second birthday, so while an IPO is a possibility in the future, we are staying committed to growing the business throughout the region."

While GrabTaxi may be a Malaysia-based company, it is notable that Singapore - via Vertex Ventures - played a key role in helping it scale, said Edwin Chow, executive director of innovation and startups at government economic promotion agency Spring Singapore. "This, coupled with other recently announced deals involving Singapore-based startups, is a validation of the health of Singapore's Internet startup scene."
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#6
Sounded like dot.com replay... anyway someone need to help lower costs with big $ that are being transferred from innocent groups in the financial markets

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/transpor...muters-win

As taxi apps do battle, commuters win
Taxi apps providers race to slash charges, offer rebates and dangle incentives to woo commuters and drivers

By
Jacquelyn Cheokaccheok@sph.com.sg @JacCheokBT
grabtaxi061214.jpg Singapore is embroiled in a raging taxi app war as taxi apps providers here - at least six and counting - race to slash charges, offer rebates and dangle incentives to woo commuters and drivers alike, while global investors fervently pump money into their chosen apps to grab more market share in this burgeoning space. PHOTO: ST
6 Dec5:50 AM
Singapore

SINGAPORE is embroiled in a raging taxi app war as taxi apps providers here - at least six and counting - race to slash charges, offer rebates and dangle incentives to woo commuters and drivers alike, while global investors fervently pump money into their chosen apps to grab more market share in this burgeoning space. (see infographic)

In just the past two days, two app companies announced major funding. Uber, the San Francisco- based service backed by notable US investors such as Google Ventures and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, raised another US$1.2 billion round that values it at US$41 billion. This comes after Vertex Venture-backed GrabTaxi snagged US$250 million in Series D funds, taking total funding to some US$340 million. Meanwhile, Rocket Internet's Easy Taxi and London-based Hailo - both with a presence in Singapore too - have each raised some US$77 million.

"In the taxi-booking space, massive funds are needed to give free smartphones to taxi drivers, pay them commission to use the app, and pay commuters referral fees for recommending it to their friends. In this game of burning cash to gain traction, players will find it hard to win without a large war chest," Christopher Quek, director and resident mentor at Angels Gate Advisory, told BT.

"It's a battle for market share, and competition is ultimately great for the consumer," said Patrick Grove, co-founder of new media investment firm Catcha Group.

In Singapore alone, an average of 960,000 taxi rides take place daily, and some 28,000 taxis ply the roads, latest official figures show. From next year, the minimum percentage of taxis required on the roads will be increased to 85 per cent of each taxi operator's fleet, up from the current 80 per cent, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in November.

And leveraging this is UberTAXI, which has waived taxi-booking fees here for two weeks, letting commuters save up to S$3.30 per ride, an offer observers reckoned is one of the most attractive to-date.

Uber also provides weekly monetary incentives to drivers, including S$500 to those who complete 80 Uber trips or more in a week.

Not to be outdone, Hailo, in partnership with SMRT Roads, launched in October with free credits worth up to S$20 per ride for first users. It recently concluded a month-long lottery where five drivers had the chance to win S$888 weekly with every Hailo job.

This is all part of a business strategy to attract users, particularly in the initial stages when the apps first enter the market, said Andy Sim, a transport analyst at DBS Group Research. "At this stage, my sense is that commuters and taxi drivers are hopping from app to app in search of the best and most user-friendly deal."

But Jianggan Li, co-founder of Easy Taxi Singapore, believes that any advantage gained by incentives is short term; the real difference comes from day-to-day factors such as ensuring taxi availability and satisfactory service levels.

"Differentiation on taxi booking apps is limited . . . (at the end of the day), what commuters want are readily available taxis," agreed Mr Quek.

That all the players here basically match taxis with commuters notwithstanding, each of them claims a unique competitive advantage. For Malaysia-based GrabTaxi, it is its focus on South-east Asia and its positioning as a "hyper local company" that understands the specific needs of drivers and commuters in each of the 17 cities it operates in.

"There has been an urge to enter markets and disrupt the industry in order to provide the service; this is something GrabTaxi tries to avoid doing. When we entered Singapore, we immediately started to work with the LTA to ensure the service complemented and enhanced the existing industry," managing director Lim Kell Jay said.

Hailo's competitive advantage, said a spokeswoman, is its close partnership with local operators, drivers, events, charities and businesses, making it the first third-party app here to partner a local transport operator, while Easy Taxi points to its Easy Taxi Corporate feature, which allows companies to manage employee taxi rides entirely via the app. "It is gaining good traction and we're hiring more salesmen to cope with the demand," said Mr Li.

For Uber, whose drivers are known for their outgoing and chatty personalities, it said it's the only solution that has Singaporeans covered for all occasions. Aside from UberTAXI, there is UberEXEC, which offers rides in luxury cars such as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5-Series, and UberX - the lower-cost version of UberEXEC which features vehicles such as the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sunny.

"Uber is also making the entire transport experience completely cashless and hassle-free . . . nothing short of magical. Commuters don't need to carry the right amount of cash or worry about whether the credit card machine in a taxi is working or not. Upon reaching his destination, he simply gets out of the car and goes on his way," said Uber's regional manager Michael Brown.

Meanwhile, commuters - the ultimate winners - should enjoy this while it lasts, industry watchers said, predicting that the market will eventually gravitate towards a few key players who are able to survive the costly price war.

"I believe in the end, each market will have two key players, and different markets may have different winners," said Mr Grove, "So some companies are willing to launch into multiple markets, see what happens, and then scale back to fewer markets if they do not get traction."

That could be a reference to Hailo, which pulled out of North America in October after less than two years of operations, citing "astronomical marketing spend" and difficulty in turning a profit. The company said it would focus instead on expanding into new cities in Europe and Asia.

"Indeed, it is the survival of the fittest, and deepest pockets. How long the taxi app war is going to last will depend on how deep the pockets are for these companies," DBS' Mr Sim said

In fact, the biggest losers in the taxi app war may just be call centres - such as those run by ComfortDelgro and SMRT - which will see a severe drop in call demand with the shift towards taxi-booking apps, said Mr Quek. After all, why would cab drivers and commuters use call centres when the apps are rolling out incentives and more?
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#7
In Singapore, Easy Taxi is out due to competition... The winner today, should be GrabTaxi...

Easy Taxi exits Singapore amid stiff competition
18 Sep 2015 10:59
CAB-BOOKING app Easy Taxi has wound up its operations in Singapore due to stiff competition, The Straits Times has learnt.

While the Brazil-based start-up - which entered the market here in December 2013 - declined to reveal when it stopped operations, industry players said it was likely to have been late last month.
...
Source: Business Times Breaking News
“夏则资皮,冬则资纱,旱则资船,水则资车” - 范蠡
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#8
I prefer uber. Private cars. [emoji1]
Time to roll!!!
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#9
it's a case of market share! biggest money burner wins! Big Grin
1) Try NOT to LOSE money!
2) Do NOT SELL in BEAR, BUY-BUY-BUY! invest in managements/companies that does the same!
3) CASH in hand is KING in BEAR! 
4) In BULL, SELL-SELL-SELL! 
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