Hailo rival GetTaxi raises $150 million in venture capital

GetTaxi, the ride-hailing application that competes with Hailo and Uber, raised $150 million as the company builds out a corporate service and expands into new markets.

That brings the total GetTaxi has raised to more than $210 million, Swedish fund manager Vostok Nafta Investment said today in a statement.

Vostok Nafta said it invested $25 million in Tel Aviv-based GetTaxi in the latest round. Investors are pouring cash into the burgeoning market for apps that let users order taxis and cars or share rides using their smartphones.

Uber, which is in more than 40 countries, raised $1.2 billion in funding in June, giving it a value of $17 billion. Lyft raised $250 million from investors including Alibaba in April.

“Although competition is ripe everywhere, we think a conservative scenario is that GetTaxi becomes the leading player in Russia and Israel,” Vostok Nafta said.

That would give GetTaxi a potential valuation of more than $2 billion in “a couple of years,” it said.

A spokeswoman for GetTaxi didn’t immediately return an e- mail seeking comment. Calls to GetTaxi’s London office weren’t immediately returned.

GetTaxi had previously raised cash from billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries and venture-capital firm Kreos Capital.

More than 1,500 businesses use GetTaxi for corporate travel and the company operates in 24 cities including London, Moscow and Tel Aviv, according to its website.

GetTaxi, which operates under the Gett brand in the US, will reach a run rate of $150 million in annual sales by the end of the year, according to Vostok Nafta

Bloomberg