Daimler’s moovel acquires mytaxi and RideScout to consolidate presence in mobility services market
04 September 2014
Daimler’s integrated mobility service company moovel GmbH (earlier post) has acquired a 100% holding in Intelligent Apps GmbH, the operator of the popular mytaxi taxi booking app. moovel GmbH also announced the acquisition of RideScout, a leading app-based mobility platform in North America, dedicated to allowing users to search and compare ground transportation options on demand.
With these acquisitions, moovel GmbH is trying to consolidate its presence in the international mobility market and accelerate its development on the way to becoming a global player. All companies concerned will continue to operate independently from their current business locations.
mytaxi. With the acquisition of Intelligent Apps GmbH, moovel GmbH plans to accelerate the international expansion of the mytaxi booking app and intensify collaborative product development. Launched in 2009, mytaxi is the world’s first app to enable direct connections between taxi users and taxi drivers. With a global volume of more than ten million downloads, mytaxi is the front runner in the field of taxi booking apps. At the beginning of 2012, then under the name of car2go GmbH, moovel GmbH already acquired a holding in mytaxi.
| A recent study has concluded that taxi ride sharing could cut cumulative trip length by up to 40%. Earlier post. |
The company’s moovel mobility platform already enables customers to compare the prices and journey times of various mobility providers—such as car2go, public transport, taxis, rail, ridesharing and even rental bikes. As it allows the optimization of classic travel management, the service is also utilized in a corporate context and not only by private customers.
mytaxi has been integrated in the moovel mobility platform since February 2013. The moovel brand car2go is well on the way to becoming the world’s largest car sharing provider: currently, more than 850,000 customers in 26 cities already use the white and blue smart fortwo cars.
mytaxi is the second integrated mobility solution after car2go. This means that customers can book both car2go vehicles and independent taxis directly with the moovel App. Today, these two services already have a total customer volume of several million users.
Our aim is to make mobility as simple as possible. This is why we are committed to the ongoing and international promotion of connecting mobility services—in future, including booking and cashless payment for all important transportation modes. The acquisition of mytaxi and our existing holding in Blacklane, the rapidly growing limousine booking service, is by no means an attack on established taxi operators. Quite the opposite, we would like to invite the taxi operators to work in close partnership with moovel and mytaxi to exploit the potentials and opportunities offered by mobile Internet services. In this light, the coming months will see us concentrating intensely on close collaboration with the taxi operators.
—Robert Henrich, CEO at moovel GmbH
RideScout. RideScout is managed by Joseph Kopser and Craig Cummings, who founded the company in 2011. Offering more than 300 mobility providers for users to choose from a one-stop mobile application, RideScout is available in 69 cities in North America.
Following the acquisition, RideScout will operate as a subsidiary of car2go North America and will continue to operate out of the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. Joseph Kopser and Craig Cummings, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, will continue to manage the business.
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