Greek taxi hailing mobile app startup Taxibeat announced that they raised €1.5 million from Greek fund Openfunds and a consortium of international investors. This recent round builds on the €1 million they’ve raised to date. Having launched in 2011 and in France at Le Web last December, Taxibeat has gone international at a break-neck pace and is now in 5 top cities, including Paris, Bucharest, Oslo, Sao Paulo, and Athens and will soon be launching in two yet undisclosed new cities, They currently have 7% of the market in their home market Athens and have been steadily gaining ground here in Paris.
Although they’re in a pretty crowded space that seems to become increasingly so by the day, the taxi business is a huge one around the world and there’s certainly room for more than one player who can step in and bring some much-needed disruption to the market. Having spoken with their France country Nicky Adle about the secret to their success in all these diverse markets, she made it clear that there’s definitely a hunger from riders and taxi drivers alike for services such as theirs that fundamentally improve the process of connecting taxi drivers and riders.