Tech

Taxi app Hailo is raising $30M to take on Uber in NYC

Watch out Uber, the cab hailing app Hailo is hot on your heels in New York City with a new $30 million funding round, reports All Things D. This new round values the London-based company at $140 million, multiple sources tell All Things D, with the lead investor likely being Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson. Hailo raised $17 million in a first round from Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, and Atomico in March. The company offers apps that connect cab drivers with passengers. For cab drivers, it’s a way to fill in potential downtime, and for passengers it’s a way to get cheaper cabs just as easily as Uber’s expensive on-demand town cars. “The taxi market is the quintessential mobile app. You’re mobile, they’re mobile,” Hailo co-founder and chief executive Jay Bregman told VentureBeat earlier this year. “No one has been able to make big networks of cabs without having the customers. [Drivers are] using this [app] even when there aren’t any customers because the app helps them.” Now that NYC has adopted an e-hail pilot program for taxi apps, it makes sense for Hailo to focus it’s energy there (and expect all of its competitors to step up their game as well). The company covered 15 percent of London’s cabs back in March, and it’s already launched in Boston and Chicago. While Uber is well-suited to fixing San Francisco’s hellish taxi ecosystem, Hailo’s strategy of empowering existing cabs, and working directly with drivers, could help it fit in better in NYC. Filed under: Business, Deals, Mobile, VentureBeat

Published

8 years ago

December 24, 2012

Zhang Fang

Hailo raised $17 million in a first round from Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, and Atomico in March. The company offers apps that connect cab drivers with passengers. For cab drivers, it’s a way to fill in potential downtime, and for passengers it’s a way to get cheaper cabs just as easily as Uber’s expensive on-demand town cars.

“The taxi market is the quintessential mobile app. You’re mobile, they’re mobile,” Hailo co-founder and chief executive Jay Bregman told VentureBeat earlier this year. “No one has been able to make big networks of cabs without having the customers. [Drivers are] using this [app] even when there aren’t any customers because the app helps them.”

Now that NYC has adopted an e-hail pilot program for taxi apps, it makes sense for Hailo to focus it’s energy there (and expect all of its competitors to step up their game as well). The company covered 15 percent of London’s cabs back in March, and it’s already launched in Boston and Chicago. While Uber is well-suited to fixing San Francisco’s hellish taxi ecosystem, Hailo’s strategy of empowering existing cabs, and working directly with drivers, could help it fit in better in NYC. Filed under: Business, Deals, Mobile, VentureBeat

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Taxi app Hailo is raising $30M to take on Uber in NYC

Myanmar

Digital Revolution and Repression in Myanmar and Thailand

Activists have also proactively published social media content in multiple languages using the hashtags #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar and #WhatsHappeningInThailand to boost coverage of events on the ground.

Published

4 weeks ago

April 16, 2021

Headline Editor

By Karen Lee

Following the February 1 coup, Myanmar’s netizens became the latest to join the #MilkTeaAlliance, an online collective of pro-democracy youth across Asia.

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Ecommerce

How will oil prices shape the Covid-19 recovery in emerging markets?

Published

2 months ago

March 24, 2021

Oxford Business Group

How will oil prices shape the Covid-19 recovery in emerging markets?

– After falling significantly in 2020, oil prices have returned to pre-pandemic levels
– The rise has been driven by OPEC+ production cuts and an improving economic climate
– Higher prices are likely to support a rebound in oil-producing emerging markets
– Further virus outbreaks or increased production would pose challenges to price stability

A combination of continued production cuts and an increase in economic activity has prompted oil prices to return to pre-pandemic levels – a factor that will be crucial to the recovery of major oil-producing countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Brent crude prices rose above $60 a barrel in early February, the first time they had exceeded pre-Covid-19 values. They have since continued to rise, going above $66 a barrel on February 24.

The ongoing increase in oil prices, which have soared by 75% since November and around 26% since the beginning of the year, marks a dramatic change from last year.

Following the closure of many national borders and the implementation of travel-related restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, demand for oil slumped globally.

In the wake of the Saudi-Russia price war in early 2020, Brent crude prices fell from around $60 a barrel in February that year to two-decade lows of $20 a barrel in late April, as supply increased and demand plummeted. The value of WTI crude – the main benchmark for oil in the US – fell to record lows of around $40 a barrel last year on the back of a lack of storage space.

While global demand for oil remains low, one factor credited with reversing the trend is the decision to make significant cuts to oil production, which subsequently tightened global supplies.

Tech

How the Rural-Urban Divide Plays Out on Digital Platforms

It is one thing for entrepreneurs, whether urban or rural, to create and operate an online store, as some digital platforms have made it relatively easy to manage an e-store – even by using just a smartphone.

Published

2 months ago

March 24, 2021

Insead Knowledge

In the West, villages are emptying out due to the lack of economic opportunities. Consider Italy where, in a bid to attract newcomers, a handful of municipalities have turned to selling houses for €1.

(more…)