Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi drives into Nigeria with global expansion

Latin American taxi app today Easy Taxi announced its global expansion in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The company recently received an additional funding of US$10-million from Rocket Internet and African Internet Holding, which is helping fast track its growth strategy.

The service works very much like Uber or similar cab services like Hailio. Download the Easy Taxi app, available for iOS, Android and the new BlackBerry devices, confirm your pickup point and order your cab. Users then receive confirmation of the name, photo and car model/plate of your driver, and will be able to follow the vehicle’s location in real-time as it approaches you. All the drivers are heavily vetted says the company.

Easy Taxi will begin operations in Nigeria — the first of the African countries in the expansion plan.

“In 2011, Easy Taxi started in Brazil to connect taxi drivers and passengers in the best possible way. By now, the app has over 1.5-million downloads and more than 45 000 taxi drivers in the network. We want to bring this success to other attractive markets and we see high potential in many Asian and African countries,” says Dennis Wang, Head of International Expansion of Easy Taxi.

The company has enjoyed significant success in Latin America, claiming to be the regions number one taxi app.

“The Easy Taxi app is convincing in every single aspect: it is fast, safe and working in a very smooth way. It fulfills all the needs for the African market. We see an amazing opportunity and we will expand fast to all the markets where we are present today with the startups of Africa Internet Holding,” says Sacha Poignonnec, co-CEO of African Internet Holding.

“Today, Easy Taxi starts in Lagos, Nigeria in a metropolitan area with 20 million inhabitants and huge potential. In the same way, we will launch Easy Taxi in more African countries in the upcoming weeks.”

An expansion like this means some interesting competition for established players like Uber and Hailio. Uber is believed to be heading into the African market but has said very little on the matter.