MyTeksi

Folks,

In this post, I want to talk about mobile taxi booking application MyTeksi, as I was there during the company’s media briefing today.

MyTeksi Sdn Bhd, as the company is called, was founded by former Harvard Business School graduates Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan.

These two geniuses had an idea to “save the world” after hearing horror stories from family and friends about the taxi industry in Kuala Lumpur.

The idea was very simple: introduce a booking application at a touch of finger.

Validated by judges in Harvard Business Plan Competition 2011, this has ideas has certainly revolutionsed the taxi industry, hence giving birth to MyTeksi.

MyTeksi was later launched to the public on June 5, 2012.

Outside Malaysia, the brand is known as GrabTaxi.

According to its general manager Adelene Foo, MyTeksi is now present in six countries and covering a total of 16 cities.

These are tabulated below:

#	Country	Population	City
1	Malaysia	29,716,965 (29.72 million)	Kuala Lumpur Putrajaya Selangor Negri Sembilan Johor Malacca Sarawak Penang
2	Singapore	5,399,200 (5.4 million)	Singapore
3	Philippines	98,393,574 (98.39 million)	Manila Cebu Davao City
4	Thailand	67,010,502 (67.01 million)	Bangkok Pattaya
5	Vietnam	89,708,900 (89.71 million)	Ho Chi Minh Hanoi
6	Indonesia	249,865,631 (249.87 million)	Jakarta

*population data was taken from The World Bank. Data is at Dec 31, 2013, and may change. 

As you can see above, there is a lot of potential to be tapped into these countries, given the high populations. Asia alone make-up one-third of the world’s population, and it is estimated that there are about 600 million people travelling in this region.

That itself is a huge market to tap into.

Foo said that in order for MyTeksi to expand into more cities, there needs to be infrastructure such as 3G internet coverage and somewhat dense legitimate taxi population.

This is true, given that to book the taxi, one need a smartphone or a tablet. Without strong internet connection, booking is not possible; and hence, it makes no sense for MyTeksi to expand its coverage to cities with low infrastructure.

As for its mobile applications (app), Foo said that it has been downloaded onto 2.1 million mobile devices with more than 400,000 active monthly users, equivalent to an estimated of two taxi bookings made through the MyTeksi platform every second.

She added that MyTeksi has about 50,000 registered taxi drivers, with 1-in-2 (one taxi driver out of two people) taxi drivers in the Klang Valley alone.

A simple maths would yield that there is an estimated range of 20,000 to 25,000 registered taxi drivers covering the Klang Valley region.

In terms of business funding, Foo said that MyTeksi has received three rounds of funding from investors that comprise of hedge-funds and venture-capital firms such as Tiger Global Management, Hillhouse Capital Management, GGV Capital, Qunar and Vertex Venture Holdings.

“MyTeksi has always been selective in choosing its investment partners. As a start-up, we value their experience and advice in helping us to revolutionise the taxi industry in Malaysia,” she said.

It is worth noting that the New York-based Tiger Global Management has nurtured technology companies such as Flipkart, Netflix, Redfin, and Survey Monkey. The firm was reported as managing some US$4.4 billion fund, with an annualized return of 21%.

The total amount of funding received has reached US$90 million (RM294.57 million) to-date.

To recap, MyTeksi received its first round of funding–known as Series A–in April this year.

A month later, the group received the second round of funding, worth more than US$15 million, bringing total combined funding value to US$90 million to-date.

According to Foo, proceeds from the investments will be channeled towards taxi drivers that include educational fund for taxi drivers and their families, as well as vehicle refurbishment.

“We will use the funds to continue our growth and expansion within Malaysia, particularly in attracting talent to handle the new territories that we will enter. A significant portion of the investments will also be used to develop community programs to reward the group’s taxi drivers, their families and passengers,” she said.

Please find the article written below:

The Edge Financial Daily, Oct 21, 2014