Gett raises $80M led by VW at a $1.4B valuation, says it will be profitable by Q1 of next year –
Summary
While Uber is growing its business with a net loss on its balance sheet, a smaller rival has confirmed a round of funding, and projects that it will be profitable by Q1 of next year. Uber has been aggressive in its efforts to expand rapidly across the globe, and to position itself as a provider of all things transportation to all people — with categories like food delivery, bikes, autonomous vehicles and flying cars all in Uber’s purview. To do this, it, along with a select few others like Didi in China and Lyft in the US, have raised billions of dollars in outside funding, effectively sucking up a large part of venture money and interest in the transportation-on-demand sector. Uber might be able to afford [going broad], but we want everyone in New York [for example] to know that we are there if you want a much better, higher quality option.” In the case of Gett, the company has been primarily serving consumers with rides, with a heavy emphasis on business users (other test areas of Gett’s like shuttle services and courier deliveries are still too small to note, Waiser said). On the other side of the transaction, Gett’s been trying to give drivers better commissions than other services in their specific markets, and generally raising the standard for how they treat them, said Waiser.