Israel based cab hailing startup Gett has raised $80 Mn from auto giant Volkswagen and other investors including Baring Vostok Capital Partner and Access Industries. Volkswagen is already an existing investor in Gett as it had pumped in $300 Mn in 2016. The latest funding round has propelled the cab hailing company’s market valuation to $1.4 billion, making it the latest entrant in the coveted unicorn club.
Gett said in a press statement that it aims to become profitable across all its markets by first quarter of 2019. The company intends to achieve this by spending less on marketing campaigns. If the Israeli startup does become profitable then it will be considered as a big achievement, since all cab hailing companies including big players like Uber and Lyft are still very far from becoming profitable.
Launched in 2010, Gett offers services in Israel and selected cities of United Kingdom, United States and Russia. Although the company is still far behind in terms of market share to pose any major threat to Uber, but analysts claim that it’s increasing popularity across existing markets makes it a worthy contender.
According to media reports, Gett’s services have largely received positive reviews and responses in all its existing markets. In fact, the company claims that today nearly 50% of its billion dollars yearly revenue comes from highly competitive markets like UK and U.S.
Analysts argue that Gett may have slightly benefited from some of the incremental problems that Uber had to face over the last one and half year. However, much of these problems have subsided during past few months, Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took some hard decisions including the decision to make an unceremonious exit from the loss making Southeast Asian market. These tough decision are largely been seen as Khosrowshahi’s plan to push Uber towards strong financial footing before its much anticipated IPO in 2019.