Although at this point the platforms that intermediate the mobility service seem to be a common denominator among users, it is a business that is growing at double digits, says José Ignacio Gutiérrez, Cabify’s regional manager for Latin America in an interview with Forbes.
“At the beginning there was no penetration of smartphones among users or drivers, so the job was more difficult”. Gutiérrez was one of the first employees of the company, which he joined when he was 26 years old because he knew its founder and CEO Juan de Antonio, with whom he had friends in common. “With the entry of competitors, the market got stronger,” he said.
Gutierrez became Chile’s general manager and in 2020 became the leader for the entire region, after 10 years of operations, including Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay, where they compete with giants such as U.S.-based Uber, China’s Didi, Europe’s Beat and Russia’s InDriver.
“Latin American countries have a higher growth potential for our business and that is where we are going to invest the most. In the next two years we want to invest close to $300 million, strengthening markets such as Mexico and Ecuador,” said Gutiérrez. “The technology industry is at a time when raising capital is complicated and they (investors) are looking for profitable companies. We have been working on this, we are about 40% larger than we were before the pandemic. We have a positive Ebitda in the region, which makes us an attractive company”.
Although plans for an IPO are not yet concrete, Gutiérrez claims that much of those resources will come from revenues due to their operation being profitable in several countries where they already operate.
In 2019, Cabify bought EasyTaxi, the largest cab platform in Latin America, which in turn had acquired Tappsi. They absorbed the operations of both and integrated cabs into their platform.
Read more on: Forbes
