Partner Article
Failed taxi app Karhoo resurrected by Renault
Doomed taxi comparison app, Karhoo, has been resurrected after French car manufacturer Renault bought the company out of administration.
Assets from the failed startup, which entered administration last November after running out of cash, have been snapped up by the French firm’s financial services division, RCI Bank and Services, for an undisclosed fee which is rumoured to be in the region of £13m.
In an announcement on their website, RCI said that the acquisition was part of its innovation and development strategy, and that the deal would help it ‘design simple and attractive solutions’ as part of its Renault-Nissan alliance brands.
A new venture called Flit Technologies Ltd will now relaunch the brand in the coming months, under the stewardship of Co-CEOs Boris Pilichowski and Nicolas Andine.
Both Pilichowski and Andine took control at Karhoo in its final weeks as they touted the remnants of the company, which at its height employed around 200 staff in various offices around the world, to potential bidders.
In a joint statement, the pair said: “They said: “There is a need in ground transportation for someone to aggregate all the independents and allow them to compete and we are determined to make sure Karhoo fills that need.
“Karhoo was amazingly successful in ferrying hundreds of thousands of people around the world but lacked a corporate backer, but with RCI Bank and Services, we now have that.”
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