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Hailing a cab in the Big Apple may soon be as easy as tapping an app.
A London tech startup, Hailo, just raised $17 million from big-name venture-capital firm Accel to bring its taxi-tracking app to the US.
Hailo is an app that allows users to virtually flag down nearby cabbies who use the service.
With a tap of a smartphone, a cabbie is alerted of the waiting fare, who is able to view the location of the cab and how long before it arrives.
Passengers also pay for the ride with a credit card though the app, and cabbies receive added features such as traffic updates from the Hailo product.
Of course, for such a system to work there needs to be enough taxis signed on, and Hailo, headed by CEO Jay Bregman, is in the process of wooing New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission with his product as he hopes to recruit hacks.
With the Accel cash in hand, Hailo has already hired a team leader in Chicago. Bregman said they are looking to hire a general manager in New York, as well.
Hailo would establish its headquarters in the city if it can be assured that taxi drivers can use its network. To be sure, there are a lot of regulatory issues to wade through, Bregman said.
”We’d like some confirmation from the city before we make that commitment here,” he said. “We just raised a lot of money, and the quicker we get approval, the quicker we can pump capital into the city.”
Hailo hopes to launch in New York within three to six months.