Karhoo, the new cab comparison and booking app that has signed up hundreds of thousands of licensed taxis and private hire cabs across the world, launches in Birmingham, offering passengers more choice with every cab booking.
The app, which has the backing of the United Kingdom Trade Investment’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP), gives customers access to more licensed black cabs, minicabs and executive cars than any other app in the UK.
It is available in Birmingham two months after launching in London, where it has proved a huge success for fleets across the capital. Many fleets, big and small, are reporting revenue increases of between 20-30 per cent and are rehiring drivers to cope with the increased passenger demand.
Karhoo, which has significant funding, a scalable model and a UK network of more than 90,000 cabs, has already signed up fleets in Birmingham including Atlas Cars, Mercury Cars, Royal Cars, TOA Taxis and TC Cars, with more to come, allowing it to offer 80 per cent of the entire taxi and private hire market.
Kabir Hussain, from Atlas Cars Birmingham said: “Local licensed and accredited mini cab companies have been losing a lot of work lately but we have seen how Karhoo has helped fleets in London, giving them so much more work and that is something we want to be involved in. Every business has to move forward, and Karhoo allows us to do that and join the ehail revolution .”
Karhoo is a vendor-neutral platform for licensed and accredited fleets that allows passengers to compare cabs by price, proximity and vehicle style. Consumers can pre-book months in advance, choose immediate pick-up and make multiple bookings, giving both local operators access to thousands more customers.
With transparent pricing and no surge, prices will not be inflated, no matter how busy it gets.
Daniel Ishag, CEO and Founder of Karhoo, said: “We are delighted to be launching in Birmingham. Karhoo will give passengers more choice and transparency when booking a cab and, with our ever-growing network of local operators, Karhoo will make it easier to book the perfect ride than ever before”.
“Karhoo is a game-changer, giving the booking.com generation the smartest way to choose and book a cab ride. Over the last 15 years, millions have been spent by industries educating consumersabout comparison services. Hotels, airlines and insurance companies all use comparison sites but ground transportation was lagging behind, until now.”
Derek Goodwin, Head of UKTI GEP and Alpesh Patel, Dealmaker, GEP, said: “Karhoo is a great example of the type of tech company that the Global Entrepreneur Programme is designed to help – a serial entrepreneur with a great business, the opportunity to grow quickly and access advanced markets all over the world.”
Karhoo, which has offices in London, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Singapore, has already secured a global network of 500,000 local taxis, minicabs and executive cars from accredited operators.
By the end of the year it will have a million licensed cabs in 30 cities across the globe, and a hundred cities within a year as established operators flock to sign up to the app that is changing the landscape of the on-demand transport industry forever.
Through integrated technology that allows real-time data sharing, Karhoo will be able to advise local cab companies where passenger demand is high at any given time, allowing them to direct their drivers to hot spots and fill more ‘dead miles’ than ever before.
Karhoo will soon be available in many major cities across the UK from Glasgow to Brighton.