Daimler has purchased a majority stake in ride-sharing firm Hailo and will merge the Uber-rival with its in-house ride-sharing network MyTaxi
By combining the two companies, Daimler will operate one of Europe’e largest services of its kind across 50 cities in nine countries with 100,000 registered taxi drivers serving 70 million customers.
Hailo currently operates in the UK, Ireland and Spain and when merged with MyTaxi, the application will also serve Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. By mid-2017, all Hailo operations will be rebranded MyTaxi.
Hailo’s founder, Andrew Pinnington, will be appointed chief executive of the expand ride-sharing company while the founder of MyTaxi, Niclaus Mewes, will take up the position as managing director of Daimler Mobility Services GmbH.
According to chairman of Daimler financial services Klaus Entenmann, “The joining of mytaxi and Hailo is another strategic step in making us a leader of mobility solutions and platforms. By providing mobility at your fingertips, customers can enjoy various forms of mobility with a transparent overview and easy to pay services. This investment is in addition to the nearly 500 million Euros we’ve already invested in building mobility platforms and services over the last years. We are prepared to make further strategic investments as we continuously build our mobility eco-system.”
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