Chinese ride-sharing company, DiDi Chuxing has announced to invest in and collaborate with Taxify, a ride sharing company in Europe and Africa to support the latter’s further growth and innovation across its diversified markets.
“Taxify provides innovative, high-quality mobility services across many diverse markets. We share a strong commitment to harnessing the power of mobile technology to satisfying rapidly evolving consumer demands and revitalizing traditional transportation industry. I believe this partnership will contribute to cross-regional smart transportation linkages between Asian, European and African markets,” said Will Cheng Wei, Founder and CEO, Didi Chuxing.
Launched in Estonia in 2013, Taxify offers taxi- and private car-hailing services to over 2.5 million users in major hubs across 18 countries, including Hungary, Romania, the Baltic States, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. With this partnership, it will benefit from DiDi’s AI technologies, and its experience with over 400 million users in more than 400 cities. DiDi also leverages its AI capabilities to help cities develop integrated and sustainable smart transportation solutions.
“Taxify will utilize this partnership to solidify our position in core markets in Europe and Africa. We believe DiDi is the best partner to help us become the most popular and efficient transport option in Europe & Africa,” said Markus Villig, Founder and CEO, Taxify.
After buying Uber’s China business to strengthen its position in the country, DiDi has inked several global expansion partnerships. Earlier this year, it invested in Southeast Asian cab-hailing service Grab, supporting the latter’s vision of helping consumers in Southeast Asia access safe transportation and financial products whilst creating employment opportunities. With this collaboration, it has now added Europe to the list.
DiDi has also invested $100 million in 99, the Brazilian ride-hailing service. In the US, it invested $100 million in Lyft to merge the two and better service Chinese consumers there, as well as led a $30 million investment in India-based Ola Cabs.