GrabTaxi, that claims to be the biggest taxi app in the geographic region, has raised its Series A

GrabTaxi, that claims to be the biggest taxi app in the geographic region, has raised its Series A 

Spherical from Vertex Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, associate investment trust closely-held by Singapore’s government. The startup’s chief executive officer and founder Anthony Tan declined to disclose the precise quantity of the funding, however same it had been over $1 million.

The startup launched in 2012 and has since opened offices in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Asian country (where it's known as MyTeksi). GrabTaxi can use its new funding to expand into new cities. The app presently has 250,000 monthly users and over a meg downloads. It claims to book a taxi each 2 seconds.

GrabTaxi competes within the same area as many domestic taxi-calling apps, furthermore as Uber and Rocket Internet’s EasyTaxi, each of that ar sharply increasing in geographic region.

But Tan downplays the supposed “taxi app war.” He says that the demand in cities like Singapore or Bangkok is high enough to support many players which the most challenge for taxi apps isn't competitory with one another, however dynamic  human behavior.

“We ar all fighting to maneuver individuals from taking taxis on the road, from streets hails to e-hails,” says Tan.

“Our challenge is convincing individuals to maneuver from street hailing to decision centers, from SMS all the thanks to associate app,” he adds.

While Uber focuses on its luxury automobile services in geographic region and Rocket net is busy taking straightforward Taxi into rising markets throughout continent, the center East, and Asia, Tan says GrabTaxi differentiates by closely examining the requirements of native customers. so as to draw in riders, GrabTaxi has centered on 2 things: convenience in inclement weather and safety, particularly for girls hailing cabs in the dead of night.

The app uses drivers from totally different taxi networks associated mechanically shows riders that cars ar nearest and have the foremost reliable drivers victimization an algorithmic rule that has variables like distance, traffic, and quality rankings. The app charges a coffee booking fee (for example, 2 ringgits, or sixty one cents, in Malaysia). Like different taxi apps, GrabTaxi permits riders to rate their driver and track their vehicle’s movements victimization GPS.

Tan says that within the close to future, GrabTaxi can expand into new cities inside the countries it already operates in rather than new countries. for instance, it simply launched in holmium Chi Minh town. Cebu, the second most inhabited town within the Philippines, is next on the list.