Insights from research

During the 2012 Transportation Seed, our team discovered that the poor (and sometimes dangerous) experience of riding in a taxi was the result of extremely misaligned incentives within the industry. The taxi market was huge with substantial opportunity for disruption by a company that could clean up back-end fragmentation and informality.

Business model

Taxis are owned by individuals - an attractive investment in Latin America. But managing the asset: hiring drivers, maintaining vehicles and collecting money from fares, is a considerable effort. Táximo manages taxis for owners, handling the complete process while giving owners a fixed return, and capturing value through operational efficiency.

Initial challenges

Taxi owners were at first skeptical of Táximo. Taxis can be a big part of a family’s wealth and livelihood, so trusting an outside administrator was difficult – especially from a new player in a market notorious for scams. The value proposition had to be developed and refined as well. It was four months before the first deal, one car, was closed.

The venture today

Today Táximo has won the trust of over 500 taxi owners, and is managing a fleet of over 1,000 taxis in four cities across Colombia and Peru. They have become the largest professionalized taxi administrator in the region, hiring and training thousands of drivers who have stable, growing careers – many for the first time in their lives.

What the future holds

Táximo aims to continue to grow across Latin America, and usher in a new era of safe, professional private transportation service across the industry. While working to constantly improve operations, Táximo is expanding into customer-facing services like dispatch through mobile applications, and an improved in-car experience.