Rothco has won a global pitch for the Hailo taxi service while retaining Dublin Bus. Launched in November 2011, Hailo is a free smartphone app which puts people just two taps away from a licensed taxi and allows cabbies get more passengers when they want them. A Hailo hail is accepted around the world every five seconds from a global network of tens of thousands of drivers and hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Rothco director Richard Carr said he was not in a position to say which other agencies pitched for Hailo.
Hailo is available in London, Dublin, Toronto, Chicago and Boston and will soon be rolled out in New York, Tokyo, Washington DC, Madrid and Barcelona. Hailo claims to have carried 2.5 million passengers and yearly sales of over $100m. Founded by three taxi drivers and three internet entrepreneurs, Hailo has raised over $50m from backers such as Union Square Ventures and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson (pictured above).
Hailo is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
