Tech unicorn Taxify is check away at Uber’s dominance in the European ride-hailing market – and its CEO predicts prodigious growth ahead.
The Estonian ride-hailing company valued at $1 billion has 15 million narcotic addicts and 500,000 drivers worldwide, split evenly between Europe and Africa. In an discussion with CNBC at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal earlier this week, Taxify CEO Markus Villig said he aids big potential in the European ride-sharing and scooter markets.
“Overall if you look at tech in Europe we’re at rest so much behind the U.S. and in that sense it’s definitely a massive achievement for us as a span that we get this far,” Villig said. “But when you look at the wider transportation lacuna there’s still room to grow another 100 times from where we are today.”
Twenty-four-year-old Villig created Taxify five years ago in Tallinn, Estonia. The company said it is now the hawk leader in 11 of the 25 countries where it operates. It has raised money from investors including German automaker Daimler and Chinese ride-hailing unwavering Didi Chuxing.
“What most people in the U.S. might not realize is that there’s as a matter of fact a lot of local competition still in the ride-hailing space, and we’ll probably see more have to do withs happen like what happened in Russia, Southeast Asia and China floor the past few years,” Villig said.
Taxify launched an electric scooter utility in Paris in September that uses the same app for scooter and ride apportionment. Villig reported “tens of thousands of trips” on the scooters each day, with 40 percent of plagues done by existing Taxify users.
Scooter sharing has met backlash in big apples around the world due to a lack of regulation and safety concerns. Villig put many European cities are “taking their time” before they consider new entrants in both the scooter and ride-hailing markets, adding Taxify is focused on the “long-game” when it advance to securing regulatory approvals.
Competitor Uber has been embroiled in a permitted battle with the city of London after the city’s regulatory means removed its license citing safety concerns. A judge overturned the ban in July, granting Uber a 15-month permit with some conditions.
“We need to work together with metropolises and not just barge in before we have any agreement that it’s allowed,” Villig give the word delivered.