CarTrawler sold a majority stake in the company to BC Partners about a year ago and is also backed by Insight Venture Partners.
Cabforce, the Finland-based taxi and transfer startup, raised funding to the tune of Euro 1.5 million at the end of January saying funds would be used to push the service to more third party travel agencies and airlines.
The company gained some early traction in distribution when it signed a deal two years ago with Amadeus to bring pre-paid taxis and transfers to the travel management community and corporates.
A statement says the Finland-based company is now on six continents and powers millions of business trips.
CarTrawler boss Mike McGearty says:
“With the addition of Cabforce content and specialist expertise to our existing portfolio of ground transportation products, we will significantly enhance the level of service, product range and availability for customers.”
He adds that the acquisition will strengthen the car rental distribution company’s position as a ‘world leading ground transportation company.’
“This is a value creative deal for both companies; our partners, suppliers and customers will benefit from a stronger and broader infrastructure and increased support as a result of the acquisition.”
Andreas Hansson, boss of Cabforce, which was founded in 2009 (TLabs here) says:
“Our partners and suppliers will benefit from this investment through enhancements in technology, data science and conversion capabilities which will strengthen our value proposition significantly.”
This is not CarTrawler’s first acquisition. The company bought the online assets Holiday Autos from Lastminute.com in June 2013.
At the time of the sale of its majority stake to BC Ventures last year, the company it has about 1,000 partners using the platform.
The deal is expected to accelerate the growth of CarTrawler through further international expansion and distribution opportunities.
The ground transportation segment has been pushing in all directions of the globe in recent years with many new entrants including Uber, Lyft, Rideshare, Ola and Didi Dache, shaking up the market and garnering big investment in the process.
The segments shows no signs of slowing down with recent developments including a $400 million round announced by Ola while search giant Baidu said it was investing in two taxi-sharing apps.
Read original article
