TechCrunch<\/a>) Cabify, a taxi app which operates in Latin America and Spain, has raised US$12m from Rakuten FinTech Fund, Seaya Ventures and others. <\/p>\nYou\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that Uber has sewn up the on-demand transportation space. But actually in a number of specific markets there are taxi apps that are holding their own against the multi billion dollar-valued Silicon Valley juggernaut. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s on that premise that Cabify, which claims to be the \u201cleading private driver and taxi ride application\u201d in Latin America and Spain, has raised $12 million in Series B funding.<\/p>\n
Leading the round is Asian e-commerce and Internet services behemoth Rakuten \u2014 via the company\u2019s Rakuten FinTech Fund \u2014 with participation from previous investor Seaya Ventures, amongst others.<\/p>\n
Cabify says it will use the additional capital to expand operations in the 11 cities in which it operates throughout Spain, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. It also plans to open several new cities across Latin America.<\/p>\n
In a call, Seaya Ventures\u2019 Michael Kleindl talked up Cabify as an example of a startup competing and winning against Uber despite being far less well-funded.<\/p>\n
He cited the company\u2019s understanding of local conditions (including strictly complying with local regulation rather than pushing hard up against it), in addition to not getting into a race to the bottom regards offering heavy discounting.<\/p>\n
The latter is echoed in a statement from Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel, Managing Partner of Rakuten FinTech Fund, who is joining Cabify\u2019s Board of Directors. \u201cWe have been incredibly impressed with Cabify\u2019s stellar performance with such limited capital,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith solid revenue growth and a more sustainable strategy than its competitors, who tend to focus on deep discounts, Cabify has established leadership positions in markets across Spain and Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another area that Cabify claims to be beating Uber and other local competitors is corporate services. \u201cCabify\u2019s corporate offering significantly outpaces what incumbent players currently offer,\u201d says Beatriz Gonzalez, Managing Partner of Seaya Ventures, in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has allowed Cabify to dominate the corporate services market and attract heaps of corporate users, who as a group, actually hosts more revenues and less churn than private users.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Cabify\u2019s Series B brings total raised by the startup to $26.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(TechCrunch) Cabify, a taxi app which operates in Latin America and Spain, has raised US$12m from Rakuten FinTech Fund, Seaya Ventures and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Rakuten Backs Spanish And Latin American Taxi App Cabify - LAVCA<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n