Vertex leads round for Southeast Asia taxi-booking app

The investor group comprises predominantly Malaysian investors. Although the size of the round was not disclosed, it has separately been described as an "eight-figure sum" and at least $10 million. Vertex first invested in GrabTaxi in September of last year.

The app allows users to book taxis operated by any provider, identifying which cars are nearest and which are the most reliable, based on variables such as distance, amount of traffic and customer feedback. There are 250,000 monthly users and the app has been downloaded more than one million times.

GrabTaxi was set up in Malaysia in 2012 as MyTeksi by two Harvard Business School graduates. They were the runners up in Harvard's 2011 business plan contest. The company expanded into Singapore last year and now also operates in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. It covers 12 cities across these five countries.

GrabTaxi has a direct regional rival in Rocket Internet's Easy Taxi. Global player Uber Taxi is also seeking to expand in Southeast Asia, although the business model involves building a fleet of taxis rather than using local providers. Indeed, GrabTaxi identifies Uber as one of the fleets with which it works.

In Singapore, GrabTaxi trails Comfortdelgro, another fleet operator that provides a similar location-based booking app.

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• Topics
• Venture
• Technology
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Southeast Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Vertex Management (II)
• Temasek Holdings
• Venture
• TMT
• Consumer