Israeli parking payment app Pango has reached a deal to buy transportation app Gett (formerly Get Taxi) for “just” $175 million, just $15 million above the company’s valuation of the company. its largest shareholder, the Swedish investment fund VNV Global.
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The deal was recently reported by foreign media, which caught the attention of the Russian Venture Telegram channel.
According to a source close to the agreement, both companies will continue to operate as independent entities and the agreement will not affect the companies’ workforce.
Gett’s value fell 24% in 2023, but shareholders said the company has tens of millions of dollars outstanding. Despite the confrontation with Palestine, the Israeli company achieved its budget goals and carried out operational activities at 80% of 2022 levels.
Among other things, Gett also won a tender from the Ministry of Transport to provide taxi services to passengers at Ben Gurion Airport.
Pango CEO Jonathan Alon commented on the deal:
“We are delighted to join Gett’s inspiring journey. Pango firmly believes in Gett as a profitable and growing company with extremely high business potential. “We are grateful for the revolution that Gett has brought to the taxi industry in Israel and we have serious plans to further develop the company in its areas of expertise.”
Gett CEO Matteo de Renzi added:
“We are pleased to welcome Pango as our new shareholder. Gett has made great strides in growing a start-up into a profitable international business and we are grateful to our shareholders Claltech, VNV and MCI Capital for their guidance and support over the years.”
Uber’s competing service, Gett, was founded by a Russian native, Dave Weisser, who left the company in 2022 and created a new startup. The business became profitable simultaneously in all countries of presence, including the Russian Federation, in 2020.
In 2022, Gett announced its withdrawal from the Russian market and actually implemented this plan. At the beginning of this year, it became known that the taxi-hailing service was liquidated by a Russian legal entity, GetTaxi Rus LLC.
Gett’s main shareholder is the Swedish venture fund VNV Global, which owns 43% of the shares. Shareholders also include Baring Vostok and Leonard Blavatnik’s Access Industries, Volkswagen ($300 million), Sberbank (risk loan of $100 million for 7 years), etc. In total, the company has raised around $900 million since 2010, when it was founded.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
