What is next in the world of ride-hailing?
Welcome to our weekly news highlights, the place where you‘ll find the most important information in the urban mobility space. Follow us to keep updated, we post every Tuesday! Here is what happened last week:
Follow up story: Uber sells its Southeast Asian operations to Grab
With a 27.5% stake in Grab and a seat at the company’s board, Uber exits the 8 Southeast Asian countries where it operates.
The deal “will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO
Two weeks after the merger of operations, Uber users in these 8 countries will be prompted to sign up for Grab. The question remains, what will happen to foreigners visiting the highly touristic region?
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Go-Jek plans to expand in SEA
Go-Jek, Indonesia’s own ride-hailing and fintech startup has announced that it has plans to expand in Southeast Asia. The news came a couple of days after Uber officially sold its Southeast Asian operations to Grab. The latter is now the only ride-hailing player in 7 out of the 8 SEA countries it operates. Indonesia has Go-Jek. Until now, Indonesians had the choice between the three companies(Uber, Grab and Go-Jek). Go-Jek had been a direct competitor to the American ride-hailer and competition was fierece. Surprisingly, as Uber exited the region, Go-Jek published a poem-like farewell post to the American company on Twitter:
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Careem plans to raise more capital
As The Middle East is one of the remaining regions where Uber still operates outside the Americas, Careem prepares itself for a fiercer competition by planning a new funding round. Reuters reports that the ride-hailing company is planning to raise as much as half a billion dollars. If this new funding round goes through, Uber can expect a tough fight in the Careem-covered territories (more than 90 cities across the MENASA region). Will Careem attempt to strike a deal similar to the recent one with Grab?
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I-Pace, the AV product of Jaguar and Waymo’s partnership
Waymo and Jaguar are working together to launch a 20,000 fleet of fully autonomous vehicles by 2022. These will be used especially for the company’s ride-hailing plans and as early as this year, people will be able to hail one of these through an app in the state of Arizona. The cars will not be for sale to the general public.
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BMW and Daimler unite forces with a cause
With a long history of rivalry in the OEM space, two German automakers unite forces in the carsharing scene. Daimler’s Car2Go and BMW’s DriveNow will form a joint venture, granting the companies 30% of the global carsharing market.
“The vision for the new JV model is to create a globally relevant tech player in the field of innovative mobility services, able to operate on an equal footing with well-known technology firms and digital competitors in the market. The BMW Group and Daimler AG intend to provide their customers with a holistic ecosystem of intelligent and seamlessly connected mobility services available at the push of a button.” Moovel’s Head of Global Communications, Michael Kuhn
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