Gett Considers Exiting US Ride-Hailing Market

Ride-hailing app Gett is considering a sale of Juno, the New York-based startup it bought last year for $200 million. According to Bloomberg, Juno represents the majority of the Israeli tech company’s U.S. operations. Sources say there is no guarantee Gett will sell Juno, and alternative options are also being considered.

“As a policy, we do not comment on M&A rumors,” a Gett spokeswoman said.

While some sources say that rising costs at Juno are the main reason for Gett’s desire to unload the company, others point out that Juno actually made a profit in the first quarter of 2018. In addition, Gett expects to be profitable in the first quarter of 2019.

While Juno only operates in New York, competing with Uber, Lyft and Via Transportation, there had been plans to expand into other U.S. cities.

Sources noted that Gett, its investors including Volkswagen, started to consider exiting the U.S. after a lack of interest during a recent funding round. The company raised $80 million last month, but it was well below the $500 million it was hoping to raise. Gett received more than $300 million from Volkswagen in 2016, but the German carmaker is now funding its own mobility unit and other operations.

Gett, which currently operates in 100 cities, is focused on Russia, where it competes with joint effort of Uber and Yandex. It’s also available in the U.K. and Israel, with investors including billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries and Swedish fund manager Vostok Nafta Investment.

The company is certainly not the first ridesharing company to have to put global plans on hold. DiDi Chuxing, for example, forced Uber out of China after the U.S.-based ridesharing app admitted it was losing over a billion dollars a year after launching in China in 2013.

And some rival automakers are teaming up to consolidate their app-based services. In March, Daimler and BMW revealed plans to merge their carsharing operations.