Gett, an international on-demand transportation, delivery and logistics company (previously known as Gettaxi), intends to invest no less than $100 million in the Russian market starting from this fall until the end of 2017, an unnamed company representatives told Vedomosti earlier this week.
This is nearly one fifth of all the financial means raised by the company ($522 million) since 2010. The last round of financing took place in May 2016, with Volkswagen Group investing $300 million in Gett.
Currently Gett covers 14 Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Krasnodar and Sochi. In addition to the coverage of additional Russian cities, which will require significant marketing expenses, the transportation company intends to develop new types of delivery services beyond its core taxi service business.
According to Gett’s EMEA VP Maxim Krasnykh, the Russian market for taxi services amounts some $3-4 billion with a current 6% to 10% annual growth rate. The company aims to control 50% of the Russian market.
Among Gett’s competitors in Russia are Yandex.Taxi, the taxi booking service of Yandex, and Uber, which entered the Russian market in 2014.
Smaller players are also in the running. Recently Takeit, a taxi service launched in July last year, agreed a $2 million equity investment with individual investors.
Update Nov. 22, 2016: Gett has approached Sberbank CIB, the corporate and investment banking arm of Sberbank, to bring the required $100 million investment. (Source: Vedomosti)
