Kabbee, the price comparison service for London’s minicabs, has completed a GBP3.8m Series A funding round with a view to accelerating its growth in London and beyond.
Octopus Investments, whose past investments include Zoopla.com, Graze.com, SwiftKey and Secret Escapes, led the round, with Simon Nixon, the founder of MoneySupermarket.com, making a significant contribution.
Kabbee will aim to consolidate its position as London’s most popular minicab app by using the investment to develop its market leading technology and to build its brand. The expertise of Octopus and Nixon comes alongside existing shareholders such as Samos (Betfair, Ocado, Goal.com), Pentland (Speedo, JD Sports, Hunter), Redbus (LOVEFiLM, Lionsgate), Tim Levene (managing partner at Augmentum Capital) and Ed Wray (co-founder of Betfair).
Justin Peters, founder and CEO of Kabbee, says: “We’ve had a brilliant journey since our launch in June 2011 and this transaction brings Kabbee a significant amount of experience in building consumer brands. We’ll use that to ensure that the minicab fares London passengers pay become increasingly transparent. Overall, this investment is a big thumbs up for the London minicab sector and will provide specific support for the 60 fantastic fleets and their drivers working with Kabbee. We have just launched our new #WouldYouRather integrated marketing campaign, focusing on choice, so it’s a very exciting time.”
Simon King, a member of the ventures team at Octopus, says: “Kabbee is a market leading service that brings the benefits of comparison to minicab bookers while supporting the best firms and drivers within the fragmented GBP2bn London minicab market. We are excited about backing the strong management team at Kabbee and look forward to working with them and Kabbee’s other investors in the next stage of the company’s development.”
