Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 18, 2026

Hailo

Hailo was a British technology platform that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application. Founded in London in 2011, the Hailo taxi service was available in 16 cities.

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Jul 18, 2026
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Hailo
IndustryTaxi management
Founded2011 (2011) in London, United Kingdom
FoundersRussel Hall
Gary Jackson
Terry Runham
Jay Bregman
Caspar Woolley
Ron Zeghibe
FateAcquired
SuccessormyTaxi
Headquarters
London
New York City
ProductsTaxi e-hailing marketplace, mobile commerce network
Websitehailoapp.com

Hailo was a British technology platform1 that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application.23456 Founded in London in 2011, the Hailo taxi service was available in 16 cities (as of December 2013).

By May 2013, Hailo had enabled more than three million rides for passengers from over 30,000 registered taxi drivers.7

The Hailo Passenger App was available as a free download from the App Store and Google Play for both iOS and Android devices.2378

In late 2016, Hailo was absorbed by myTaxi, a German e-hailing company belonging to Daimler Financial Services, to form the largest e-hailing operator. The resulting company, branded mytaxi, was based in Hamburg.9

By July 1, 2019, mytaxi was rebranded to Free Now serving over 100 European cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Milan, Paris, and London.1011 Free Now customer care and support teams operate from Dublin, Hamburg, Madrid, Warsaw among other European countries.

History

Hailo cab in London source ↗

Hailo began in late 2010, after a meeting between three London taxi drivers and three technology entrepreneurs, including founding CEO Jay Bregman.7

On 1 November 2011, Hailo officially launched to passengers in London.23 By the end of 2012, Hailo had launched in Dublin, Boston, Toronto, and Chicago,71213 but by late 2014 had discontinued services in North America.14

Funding

Hailo raised approximately $125.1 million in funding. Hailo received $3.0 million in two tranches of Seed round funding in 2011. In March 2012, Hailo received $17 million in Series A round funding led by Accel Partners.15161718 The round also included contributions from both Atomico and Wellington Partners.1819 A $30.6 million Series B investment round was secured in December 2012, led by Union Square Ventures.820 Contributions were also made by Japanese mobile telecoms group KDDI and business magnate Sir Richard Branson.816

Cities

Location Launch Slogan Fare Fee Payment Notes Link
London November 2011 The Black Cab App £10+ None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [1] Archived 6 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
New York City21 2013 The Taxi Magnet $3.00+1 $1.99 peak
$0.99 off-peak 		Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [2] Archived 12 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Barcelona 2013 La app para taxis en Barcelona2 None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [3]
Boston 2012 The Boston Taxi App $5.00+ $1.99 peak
$0.99 off-peak 		Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [4] Archived 27 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Chicago 2012 The Chicago Taxi App $5.00+ $1.50 Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [5] Archived 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Cork 2013 The Taxi Magnet None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [6] Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Dublin 2012 The Taxi Magnet None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [7] Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Montreal3 September 2013 L'application pour taxis de Montréal
The Montreal Taxi App 		None None Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [8] Archived 16 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Osaka May 2013 The Osaka Taxi App None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [9] Archived 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Madrid May 2013 La app para taxis en Madrid4 None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [10] Archived 31 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
Washington, DC May 2013 The DC Taxi App $3.25+ $1.50 Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [11] Archived 26 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Toronto 2012 The Toronto Taxi App $4.25+ None Card (automatic) Services Discontinued6 [12] Archived 14 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Limerick 2013 The Taxi Magnet None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [13] Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Galway 2013 The Taxi Magnet None None Cash or card 5 min free waiting time [14] Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Atlanta N/A6 The Atlanta Taxi App [15] Archived 31 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
Tokyo78 Coming soon5 The Tokyo Taxi App [16] Archived 10 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
Remainder
of Ireland 		March 201422 The Taxi Magnet [17] Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine

Notes

  1. Includes $0.50 mandatory state surcharge
  2. Translates to The App for Taxis in Barcelona
  3. Marketed in both English and French
  4. Translates to The App for Taxis in Madrid
  5. Atlanta, Tokyo, and the remainder of Ireland are currently locations that Hailo plans on serving in the future.
  6. Hailo shuttered its North American operations in late 2014 in Canada and the US citing low profits and increased competition from Uber and Lyft - http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hailo-taxi-app-to-close-up-shop-in-toronto-and-montreal-1.2798283

Mobile application and e-hailing

A survey conducted by Hailo found that cab drivers spend an average of 40-60 percent of their time looking for fares.723

The Hailo mobile e-hail application used mobile and GPS technology to match taxi drivers with passengers based on both availability and proximity.372425 Hailo passengers made two taps on the Hailo smartphone app in order to request and confirm their e-hail.37 Once a driver electronically accepted a passenger, the waiting passenger was sent an updated time of arrival based on route information and real-time traffic information.324

Customers also had the ability to specify if they required a wheelchair-accessible vehicle or a fixed price fare to designated location such as an airport terminal, where permitted.24 The Hailo driver app included social networking features, allowing drivers to alert each other of locations with high street fare demand, traffic conditions, speed traps and road construction obstacles.719

Both the Hailo passenger and driver apps were compatible with both iOS and Android mobile devices.716

Mobile commerce

Hailo enabled its registered passengers to e-hail, pay and tip for taxi journeys using the credit or debit card details stored within Hailo's secure cloud wallet.22624

In some city locations, taxi drivers could also use Hailo to process credit and debit card payments for street hail fares by manually entering passenger card details upon reaching their destination.

Instant trip receipts were sent to passengers by email, containing journey and payment information along with instructions to help retrieve any property lost or forgotten in the taxi.7

In February 2013, Black Car Assistance Corporation and Livery Roundtable filed a lawsuit against the taxi and limousine commission to prevent e-hailing companies from expanding to New York City.68182728 In April 2013, a judge dismissed the lawsuit and Hailo won the right to begin an e-hail beta trial. The decision was subsequently appealed.2927 After a second temporary restraining order was issued against the pilot program, Hailo became the only taxi-hailing app-maker to join the lawsuit in support of the city.18

On 30 July 2021 Southcab Ltd acquired the UK trademark Hailo.30

References

References

  1. "Taxi Heaven for London's Black Cab Drivers | Hailo". Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  2. Warman, Matt (26 January 2012), "Hailo Android app review", The Telegraph, London, retrieved 21 June 2013
  3. "Your friendly neighbourhood app", The Economist, 27 October 2012, retrieved 21 June 2013
  4. New York May Let People Hail Cabs With Smartphones, ABC News, retrieved 21 June 2013
  5. Brustein, Joshua (11 May 2012), "The Push to Make Cab Rides Smarter", The New York Times, retrieved 21 June 2013
  6. In New York, Taxi Apps Raise Objections From Competitors, NPR, retrieved 21 June 2013
  7. A Mobile App That Makes Hailing a Taxi Easier and More Efficient, Entrepreneur, retrieved 21 June 2013
  8. On-Demand Taxi Startup Hailo Raises $30M From USV And Others, Including Strategic Funding From KDDI To Launch In Tokyo, TechCrunch, retrieved 21 June 2013
  9. mytaxi and Hailo join forces to create Europe's largest taxi e-hailing company, retrieved 9 February 2017
  10. Quann, Jack. "MyTaxi to rebrand as 'Free Now' on July 2nd". Newstalk. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  11. staff, Digital Desk (2 July 2019). "Taxi app mytaxi rebrands to FREE NOW from today". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  12. "Let New Yorkers hail cabs and livery cars from their smartphones", Daily News, retrieved 21 June 2013
  13. Hailo taxi app to launch e-hailing, Crain's New York Business, retrieved 21 June 2013
  14. "Taxi app company Hailo to pull out of North America", Financial Times, retrieved 7 June 2017
  15. Startups of the week #19.1, UXB London, retrieved 21 June 2013
  16. Hailo confirms its $30M round from Richard Branson, Union Square Ventures, VentureBeat, retrieved 21 June 2013
  17. "On-Demand Car Services Driving Off With Venture Funding", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 21 June 2013
  18. "Taxi-Hailing Battle Heats Up in New York", Inc., retrieved 21 June 2013
  19. Put your hand down! Hailo, yet another cab app, gets $17M from Accel Partners, VentureBeat, retrieved 21 June 2013
  20. "Hailing Hailo", New York Post, retrieved 21 June 2013
  21. WSJ"Taxi! Taxi! Oh, Never Mind. I'll Use My Smartphone.", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 21 June 2013
  22. "Hailo Nation". 3 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014.
  23. Taxi race: can Uber and Hailo deliver a real-time revolution?, The Verge, retrieved 21 June 2013
  24. An entrepreneur pitches an app solutions to New York's accessible-taxi problem, TechCrunch, retrieved 21 June 2013
  25. Underlying technologies of taxi apps, archived from the original on 4 March 2016, retrieved 27 February 2015
  26. Hailo Taxi June 2011 (PDF), Hailo, archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2011, retrieved 21 June 2013
  27. Here Come the Yellow Cab Apps: New York Judge Dismisses E-Hail Lawsuit, BETABEAT, retrieved 21 June 2013
  28. "Race On for Taxi Apps", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 21 June 2013
  29. Hailo Launches Taxi App Beta Test; Uber Approved for TLC Pilot Program, BETABEAT, retrieved 21 June 2013
  30. "Search for a trade mark - Intellectual Property Office. Trade mark number UK00003612177". trademarks.ipo.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2024.