I
n what may turn out to be
the first big consolidation move in the tech-backed cab services
market, Olacabs is close to buying out TaxiForSure for $200-250 million,
sources told TOI. The deal is already sealed and a formal announcement
could be made in the next few weeks.
Backed by Japan's SoftBank Corp, Ola's acquisition of the four-year-old
startup will make the combined entity a clear leader in India's
fast-growing cab aggregation market, giving it a significant leg up over
Uber.
The wait for a radio taxi licence for Uber, Ola and others just got
longer. On Wednesday , transport department officials said
applications for a licence under the radio taxi scheme by appbased taxi
services had been sent back to the companies.
n what may turn out to be
the first big consolidation move in the tech-backed cab services
market, Olacabs is close to buying out TaxiForSure for $200-250 million,
sources told TOI. The deal is already sealed and a formal announcement
could be made in the next few weeks.
Backed by Japan's SoftBank Corp, Ola's acquisition of the four-year-old
startup will make the combined entity a clear leader in India's
fast-growing cab aggregation market, giving it a significant leg up over
Uber.
The wait for a radio taxi licence for Uber, Ola and others just got
longer. On Wednesday , transport department officials said
applications for a licence under the radio taxi scheme by appbased taxi
services had been sent back to the companies.
“A deficiency notice
has been sent to Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure and a Chennai-based
company , NTL. All four had applied for a licence but certain
documentation is missing, which they have been asked to furnish,“ said a
senior government official.
Officials clarified that the
applications of these four taxi service companies had not been rejected.
They have simply been asked to fill the gaps in their applications.
“We have a checklist of documents and information that we need from
the applicant. Parts of the checklist were missing from all four ap
plications. They have been asked to provide the necessary documents so
that the application can be further processed,“ said the official.
While TaxiForSure was one of the first app-based taxi services to
apply for the radio taxi licence, Ola and Uber had followed suit earlier
last week.The Delhi government had in December banned all taxis running
under the app-based format. It had said that only those taxi services
which have a valid radio taxi licence will be allowed to ply in Delhi.
The rest, like the appbased companies, were being prosecuted by the
enforcement agencies. To escape action, Uber had relaunched its services
in Delhi last week with the provision that it would not charge a fee
for its service.The company said it would base itself on a government
agency's Pooch-O model.
The major app-based taxi services have
been facing heat from the enforcement agencies after the ban, following
the rape of an MNC executive by an Uber cabbie in December.
