Israeli taxi hailing app Gett has confirmed that it is acquiring ridesharing app Juno. No financial details were disclosed but Gett (formerly GetTaxi) founder and CEO David Waiser told "Techcrunch" that the price of the deal is $200 million, although he did not say whether the payment would be in cash or shares.
Juno was founded in New York in 2016 by the Israeli founder of messaging app Viber, CEO Talmon Marco, which was sold to Japan's Rakuten in 2014 for $900 million. Juno is a taxi app based in New York whose declared aim is to compete with Uber. While Uber has been under fire for its treatment of drivers, Juno's slogan is "Juno treats drivers better. Drivers treat you better."
Israel-based Gett was "Globes" startup of the year in 2014. The company, which is mainly a taxi-hailing app, is strong in its home country as well as in Western Europe and Russia but has struggled to gain a foothold in New York and elsewhere in the US. Gett has raised $513 million to date including a $300 million investment from Volkswagen last year.
Waiser said, "This current deal provides a really enormous opportunity for expansion, so we’ll be looking for more capital this year. VW has been really supportive and an amazing partner, so everything is open for both existing and new investors."
Waiser said that in the first quarter of 2017, Gett grew 100% in terms of both rides completed and revenue. "I don’t suggest that every quarter is like that, but it’s important that we achieved that at scale. We are growing organically too."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 26, 2017
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