Business
Heetch adds $4 million to its Series B round
Ride-hailing service Heetch has added a new investor to its $38 million Series B round. AfricInvest is investing another $4 million in the startup — in total, Heetch has raised a $42 million Series B round. Previous investors in the Series B round include Cathay Innovation, Idinvest and Total Ventures.
Heetch first started as a pure peer-to-peer ride-hailing platform. Anyone could become a driver, anyone could order a ride. After some regulatory issues in France, Heetch now uses a hybrid approach. It partners with professional drivers in some markets, it partners with local taxis and even moto-taxis in others.
In its home market France, the company competes directly with Uber, Kapten and other traditional ride-hailing apps. It takes a smaller cut than many of its competitors (15%) and users can pay both in cash or card.
According to the company, Heetch is one of the top three companies in the nine French cities where it operates (Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Nantes). Heetch also operates in Belgium.
More recently, the company has expanded to other markets with a focus on French-speaking Africa. It is currently live in Morocco, Algeria and Cameroon. In Morocco, Heetch has partnered with major taxi unions to let people book taxis through its app. It is now the only legal ride-sharing app.
In Douala, Cameroon, the company has built a moto-taxi service. The company insists that it is training drivers and moto-taxis are equipped with helmets as there are many accidents.
Up next, Heetch plans to expand to six additional countries in 2020, including Tunisia and Senegal.
-
Business6 days ago
Langdock raises $3M with General Catalyst to help businesses avoid vendor lock-in with LLMs
-
Entertainment6 days ago
What Robert Durst did: Everything to know ahead of ‘The Jinx: Part 2’
-
Entertainment5 days ago
This nova is on the verge of exploding. You could see it any day now.
-
Business5 days ago
India’s election overshadowed by the rise of online misinformation
-
Business5 days ago
This camera trades pictures for AI poetry
-
Business6 days ago
CesiumAstro claims former exec spilled trade secrets to upstart competitor AnySignal
-
Business7 days ago
Internet users are getting younger; now the UK is weighing up if AI can help protect them
-
Business4 days ago
TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK