Funding rounds in the ride-sharing scene, GM’s Maven Gig, UberPOOL and Didi’s solution to traffic
Welcome to our weekly news highlights — the place where you can read the most important tech, urban mobility and automotive industry news in one article. The faith of investors in the ride-sharing industry is once again confirmed — two large investment in India’s Ola and Indonesian Go-Jek were made last week. GM opens Maven Gig, an affordable car rental service that promises to serve people working in the gig economy. UberPool gets an upgrade which promises to save time and last, how Didi lends its data to reduce traffic in China.
Ola raises 104 million from Falcon Edge Capital & RNT Capital
The Indian ride-sharing company Ola recently raised $104 million in series I funding. The investment was lead by Falcon Edge Capital and followed by Tata’s RNT capital
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Go-Jek raises 1.2 billion
Lead by Tencent, Indonesia’s Go-Jek raised an astonishing $1.2 billion in funding. This latest investment makes the company’s value $3 billion. Currently, Go-Jek only operates in Indonesia, where it battles Uber and Grab. The funding is meant to help the local in the fight against the other two and to continue working on its mobile payment Go-Pay. Although there are also rumours about the company’s expansion plans to other countries, it seems like they would prefer to focus on their home territory first.
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GM’s Maven Gig — Chevy Bolt for the gig economy
It has become quite common that people who drive for ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, make use of rental cars although car rental in the United States is incredibly expensive. This has not gone unnoticed by General Motors. GM has opened a branch of car rental services designed for the people working in the gig economy. For $299 a week, people will be able to rent Chevy Bolts — the costs cover insurance, maintenance and electric charging. This saves a lot of headaches for people who want to be a driver but do not want to deal with the burden of private ownership. The service currently only operates in San Diego as a pilot but it is expected to expand to San Francisco and L.A. in the near future. Although the fees are considerably lower than traditional car rental, the deal is still quite expensive considering that besides the fee, services like Uber, take up to 25% of driver’s earnings. Having to pay a rental and ride-sharing commission, would leave full time drivers with earnings just above the minimum wage.
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UberPOOL gets an upgrade to save everyone time
Have you ever been delayed and stuck in traffic because your UberPOOL had to pick up somebody who was relatively close by, but because of one-way streets it ended up being such a hassle to get to? Well, Uber has now proposed a way in order to minimise these inconveniences. The upgrade that UberPOOL has gotten are suggestions for better pick ups and drop offs to save everyone time. What people have to do? Walk short distances to get to, say, the corner of a street and be able to be picked up without a driver having to do one round to get around a one way street.
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Didi lends its data to authorities to ease congestion
Didi’s data gathered through its drivers can help ease congestions in cities. The use of “smart traffic lights” powered with real time data and road sensors, helps sync traffic lights depending on the shifting number of cars on the roads. With Didi’s help, traffic congestion has dropped around 11% in the pilot city of Jinan . It is no surprise the that data is now becoming the most valuable resource in the world — when use correctly it could solve many problems, including traffic jams.
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