Irish-founded taxi booking app Lynk, whose primary customer base is in Dublin, is looking to expand nationwide, with plans to start operating in Cork and Galway shortly.
The expansion comes after the company, a homegrown rival to MyTaxi (formerly Hailo), has invested about €1 million in recent months to partner with a number of small taxi operators in the greater Dublin area.
Lynk was founded by Noel Ebbs in early 2015. It has about 500,000 customers in Dublin and a fleet of 2,700 drivers.
Overall, the company, which also operates across several UK cities and in the US, has “several million” customers.
The company ramped up operations in the UK and US last year after securing €25 million in private funding to launch the Riide brand in both markets.
Lynk has completed four local acquisitions over the past few months, snapping up Penny Cabs in Lucan, Maynooth Cabs, Tallaght Express Cabs, and Exchequer Cabs, which operates on Dublin’s northside.
“We’re operating throughout the greater Dublin area and plan to be available in Cork and Galway before the end of the year,” Mr Ebbs said.
Shooting fish
Mr Ebbs said that in addition to becoming a national platform, Lynk was intent on further expansion overseas.
“We are operating across all the major cities in the UK now and have about 20,000 drivers working for us,” Mr Ebbs said. “We formed an alliance with a number of investors there to take the software platform nationwide and have enjoyed great success. So much so that it is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“We have also done a number of deals with yellow cab companies in Washington and Virginia recently and are very excited about prospects there,” he added.
The company recorded turnover of about €15 million in 2016, with Mr Ebbs saying the company had performed ahead of every expectation since its launch.
“Increased competition means we might not do this in 2017 because it is becoming more difficult to maintain such a high level of growth, but I’d be very optimistic that we’ll reach our targets of a 10 per cent rise in revenues. If we don’t we’ll be very close,” Mr Ebbs said.
Lynk, based in Newmarket, Dublin 8, employs about 100 people directly, most of whom work in customer services and administration.
Unlike rivals such as MyTaxi, whose business model is based on taking a percentage of every cab fare, Lynk makes much of its revenue from membership fees paid by drivers who sign up to the service.
