Because Of The Epic Price War Between Lyft And Uber, This Taxi-Hailing Startup Is Leaving The US
Oct 14, 2014, 22:20 IST
about.meHailo co-founder and co-CEO Jay Bregman is stepping down from his role at the company to pursue "entrepreneurial endeavors."Hailo, the London-based taxi-hailing app startup, is leaving North America, reports Financial Times.
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In addition, its co-founder and co-CEO, Jay Bregman, will leave the company. Tom Barr, Hailo's other CEO, will take the reins.
The company provides a way for users to hail cabs with their phone, so while it has competed in the same market as Uber and Lyft, it's not as anti-taxi as Uber has been. In fact, Hailo works with local taxis, which run a meter and allow Hailo to take 10% commission from customers' fares. However, it seems competition from Uber and Lyft have caused Hailo to bow out of the U.S. and Canada."When we moved into North America, we had two entrenched first-mover competitors," Barr told Financial Times. "They are in a price war. It's not that we aren't growing there, but the profitability of the market and the type of environment [that other taxi-app companies] are setting up - both on the driver and passenger side - ceased to make sense to us."
Hailo has so far raised $77.1 million in 4 rounds from 11 investors, including Red Swan Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Richard Branson, and Accel Partners, according to Crunchbase. As of now, Hailo operates in roughly 30 cities globally, and has more than 1.4 million registered customers.