Robin9 wrote:

My car insurance company has sent me an epistle that
suggests that Uber are no longer having everything their
way:

QUOTE:

Cab comparison app Karhoo launched in London two
months ago and already it claims to be twice the size
of its nearest competitor. The company states it is giving
the Capital’s consumers more choice and drivers more work.

Karhoo is at pains to point at that it is a cab comparison app
rather than a cab app. This is an important distinction as it
means Karhoo can bring various operators together on one
online platform. In doing so they can offer passengers instant
access to significant numbers of London’s professional taxi
and private hire fleets.

Unlike other cab apps its also able to provide options from
both the black cab trade and private-hire licensed fleets,
as well as pre-booked jobs well in advance of the journey.
Users of the app also have the option to select the number
of seats they require for their journey.

Many of the small and medium sized taxi and private hire
fleets that are signed up to Karhoo operate on regional
patches. This helps spread them out more efficiently beyond
the centre of the city. Drivers on other apps, it claims are
often newly licenced and only drive part-time for a cab app
outside of their day jobs. For these and other reasons Karhoo
believes the service it offers is superior to other cab apps.

Many months were spent laying foundations with the cab
industry before launching Karhoo. On the day it went live
it already had fleets totalling more than 30,000 taxi and
private hire vehicles signed up to its service. This figure
has since increased by over 10%. To put these numbers
into perspective their nearest rival in 2015 only claimed to
have 15,000 drivers working in the UK’s capital and many
of these were likely to be part time.

Operators that have signed up to the app have been quick
to praise the impact that Karhoo has made on the market.

"Before Karhoo, many of our jobs went to Uber. Now they’re
coming back. Karhoo is helping the industry while others are
trying to take it over."

Nadeem Khan, boss of Cascade Cars

"Karhoo’s been a shot in the arm. We’ve had to open our
driver recruitment centre 24/7."

Duncan Blackett, CEO of Swiss Cottage Cars – the second
biggest fleet in the city.

Karhoo says confidently that it is “without doubt, the biggest
cab app in London today.” Their company blog claims that in
just a few weeks Karhoo has seen tens of thousands of people
sign up and ride with the service. The active user base is
currently expanding by more than 30 per cent each week.

No doubt buoyed by these figures Karhoo CEO, Daniel Ishag
released the following statement,
"London has been a phenomenal success. Fleets working with
us know how much we are benefiting the industry and the
figures are far ahead of anything seen before. We’re bringing
on-demand cab service to four or five times the geographical
area that any single operator can cover. That is what makes
us unique. Now for the rest of the world."

The company has big plans. In the coming months it will be
rolling out across the UK, America, Europe and Singapore.
So the UK and rest of the world appears to have an app
(sorry a cab comparison app) ready to challenge the might
of Uber.

Their logic seems very sound. Every other market is
dominated by price comparison sites. For personal
insurance there is GoCompare and dozens of other
providers. If you want a flights you probably check a
site like SkyScanner or one of their near endless list
of competitors. If anything the taxi cab and private hire
apps market has been late to the aggregator party.
UNQUOTE

I have no experience of this new comparison app but I'm
glad someone has provided small minicab companies with
the means to compete with Uber on equal terms.

Well, that didn't last long!

Looks like it's not quite so easy to beat Uber as some people think:

http://www.businessinsider.com/karho...illion-2016-11

Quote:

Karhoo was asking investors for $10 million before it launched, not $250
million
Sam Shead

Last year, taxi price comparison app Karhoo's CEO Daniel Ishag was trying
to convince investors in Silicon Valley and London to back his taxi app
idea with their millions.

The startup, which shut down this week, managed to close a funding round in
October 2015. It never confirmed how much it raised but The Financial Times
reported that it was $250 million (£197 million), and Karhoo founder and
CEO Daniel Ishag happily went along with this figure.

The fact that Karhoo never denied that amount caused many of its 200
employees to believe the company had a cash surplus in the bank.

The reality is, however, that Karhoo never raised anywhere near that much,
and it never set out to either.

A venture capitalist told Business Insider on Friday that Karhoo chairman
David Ishag (Daniel's cousin) emailed him in January 2015 asking for $10
million (£7.9 million) at a $50 million (£39.5 million) valuation. In the
email, Ishag wrote: "Our goal is that there won't be a city, town or
village anywhere in the world that Karhoo won’t be able to help you in."

The investor said there's a chance that Karhoo went on to raise more than
$10 million but they refused to accept the company raised anything like the
$250 million.

"I'm shocked anyone would give them ten not to say more than that with such
a rubbish product," said the investor. "But it's plausible. I guess they
found bigger suckers. They're well connected in the finance world so high
net worth bankers are a possibility if you're posh and went to school with
them. Those guys often are the dumbest money in London venture capital."

Ishag admitted to the FT this week: "We did not raise $250 million, that
was a misconception." Albeit a misconception that he didn't seek to
address.

So how much did Karhoo really burn through in less than a year? "Since
inception, $52 million (£41 million) has gone into the business," said
Ishag. "If you look at the Lyfts and Ubers of this world, they had spent in
the region of half a billion dollars to get 200,000 drivers, so it just
goes to show our efficiencies."

Karhoo was giving individuals in London, New York, and Singapore hundreds
of pounds worth of free rides as it looked to tempt them away from
platforms like Uber. A Karhoo employee, who found out he no longer had a
job at Karhoo via Slack, told Business Insider: "There were many promo
codes out, and we ended up having to deal with a lot of fraud prevention in
our app. They were usually $40 promo codes per ride, so people would take a
$39 dollar ride over a $28, for example."

Bloomberg reports that Ishag put things like designer shoes and clothing,
along with veterinarian’s bills for a pet dog, on a corporate credit card.
First-class flights, Cuban cigars, and a "blow out" in Vegas were also put
on the company accounts. Then there were the offices in London, Singapore,
and New York, with a £12,000-a-month apartment in the latter.

Karhoo's debts stand at $30 million (£23 million), according to a Silicon
Valley investor with knowledge of the company. They added that the
company's employees have not received any redundancy pay and that they are
owed at least a months wages.

Daniel Ishag could not be reached for comment.