Didi Chuxing mobility investments, cross-app booking possibilities and more.

Aida Sanchez-Valdez
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

Welcome to our weekly news roundup, the place where you can find the most important information about urban mobility every Tuesday. The companies which made the headlines last week are: Didi Chuxing, Taxify, Amtrak, Lyft, Line, Daimler, Volocopter, Ofo, Softbank, Ola, Gett and Juno. Without further ado, here are the highlights of last week’s news:

China’s DiDi invests in Taxify

One of the largest ride-sharing platforms, China’s Didi Chuxing, backed by Softbank, has recently announced its investment in the Estonian firm Taxify. Taxify is an e-hailing platform operating in 20 countries, although very often just in one city. Didi’s investment reflects its efforts to have a bigger footprint in the global e-hailing market.

Read more here:

Amtrak app users can now book a Lyft in their app

Lyft has partnered up with Amtrak in order to allow users book a Lyft from their Amtrek application. Cross-app booking is here to stay and that is because businesses see the opportunity in partnering up with companies that offer complementary services. In the case of Amtrak and Lyft, it makes sense to let users book a ride that can take them from door to door without switching applications.

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is a passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States.

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Line launches allows e-hailing for licensed taxis in Thailand

Line, the japanese firm better known for its animated characters and messaging application, has decided to enter the Thai e-hailing market by offering users in Bangkok the option to book certified taxis through an application.

Read more here:

Daimler invests in Volocopter

The German startup specialised in building VTOL has received an infusion of 25 million euros in funding. The also German automaker Daimler is amongst the leading investors.

Read more here:

Ofo rumoured to be in talks to raise 1billion

Mobike’s competitor Ofo is said to be in talks to raise up to $1 billion in funding from Japan’s largest investor, Softbank. According to sources, Didi Chuxing might also be joining the funding round.

Read more here:

Ride-sharing platform Ola to receive $400 million in founding from Tencent

Indian ride-sharing platform Ola is said to be in talks with China’s Tencent to receive a $400 million dollar investment. The money would be used to fight off American competitor Uber and keep a strong footprint in Ola’s territory. If Tencent were to make the investment, it would raise Ola’s valuation to up to $4 billion.

Read more here:

Gett: no longer available in the US store

Gett has decided that its application is better off staying away from the US market. Last week, users found out (without a warning) that Gett had disappeared from the US store. Gett used Twitter to tell its customers to download its latest US acquisition Juno if they wanted to use the e-hailing service.

Read more here:


Here at Splyt we are constantly working on getting interesting, relevant info on Urban Mobility straight to you. Follow us on all our channels and we will keep you in the loop! Is there a topic you want us to cover in an article or a documentary? Lets us know: leave a comment or shoot us a message.

Splyt

Blog ran by Splyt employees

Aida Sanchez-Valdez

Written by

From MX to DE, SG, NL, AT, ES & UK. Passionate about technology, fashion, food and travel.

Splyt

Splyt

Blog ran by Splyt employees

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