According to unconfirmed information, the Greek application Taxibeat is very close to being acquired by Daimler subsidiary MyTaxi, at about 40 million euros.
German giant Daimler, best known for Mercedes-Benz and Smart vehicles, is investing in new technologies for automotive services, including taxi and truck rentals, and is looking to buy the Greek application Taxibeat through MyTaxi, a Startupper.gr report says.
Startupper.gr has contacted Daimler and Taxibeat which so far have not confirmed the information leaked to the Greek press on Thursday.
Taxibeat was founded in 2011 and offers taxi services via App in Athens with 7,000 drivers and for the past two years it operates very successfully in Lima, Peru with over 15,000 drivers and 800,000 users in total.
Taxibeat is the brilliant idea of Nikos Drandakis, who started the enterprise with 45,000 euros he received from OpenFund, who were impressed by the concept. Drandakis idea was to bring the driver close to the passenger. Taxibeat picked up very soon and succeeded in Athens first. In 2013, impressed by the progress of the Taxibeat application, Hummingbird invested 3 million euros in the project.
MyTaxi was founded in 2009, offering taxi services via App in several countries in Europe and was by Daimler in 2014. Last summer it acquired English Hailo and reached 100,000 taxi drivers in 50 cities in nine countries.
If indeed the deal closes and Taxibeat is sold to MyTaxi for 40 million euros, it will be a great irony for the Greek government that recently sold the country’s public railway system (Trainose) to the Italian state railway operator for a meager 48 million euros.
If indeed the Greek administration supported entrepreneurship, as it claims it does, the Greek economy could benefit from projects like Taxibeat and others. And if red tape was eliminated and taxes were lower, more ideas like that of Nikos Dandrakis would flourish and boost the ailing economy.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
