Just one month after GetTaxi’s announcement of its rebranding as Gett, and a month before it adds new services to its existing taxi-ordering service, Gett is planning to significantly increase its manpower. The company announced that it intends to recruit 300 new workers by year end, half of them for the company’s Tel Aviv development center in Ramat Hachayal.
In order to meet goals and expand into areas such as pizza delivery, manicures, babysitter services, and doctor house calls, the company plans to recruit 150 workers in Israel, and 150 more for the company’s branches in Russia, the UK, and the US (New York). The company will be hiring Android and iOS developers, product managers, salespeople, and marketing, digital and operations personnel. Today, Gett employs 350 workers, 150 of them in Israel. If the company meets its recruitment targets, it will employ 650 workers by the end of this year.
According to Gett Global Talent Acquisition Manager Anat Assaf, “Gett is at the exciting stage of accelerated growth from a leading start-up into an industry leader. We expect to work with the gurus and the masters that people come to learn from, people who love technology, and who match our DNA.”
Gett announced its rebranding just a few weeks ago, but more importantly, it announced its new strategy. In addition to ordering a taxi at the click of a button, the company plans to make it possible to order food, cosmetic treatments, cleaning services, and personal healthcare services from a smartphone within minutes, in most cases.
Gett’s new business model is not yet entirely clear, nor is the matter of how it plans to profit from food deliveries that are executed by external suppliers and couriers. This new strategy puts Gett in direct competition with its biggest rival, Uber. Competing US taxi-ordering service Uber recently launched UberEat, which makes possible deliveries from select restaurants in Los Angeles, Barcelona, New York, and Chicago.
Gett is on the fast track towards a possible IPO in the next two years. While an action plan may exist only in founders Shahar Waiser and Roy Mor’s desk drawers, the accelerated growth, profitability, workforce, and global expansion signal the path. Last August, Get Taxi completed a $150 million fundraising round, and though the company did not bother to list the names of all the investors, it has recruited $207 million to date. Waiser said last month that company expects to reach $500 million in annual revenue from taxi services alone by the end of this year. There is no mention of profit, but according to Waiser, the company is profitable in three of the four countries in which it operates (all but the US).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 18, 2015
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