Lyft, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola Form Global Rideshare Partnership

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lyft, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola today announced additional strategic partnerships that expand the global rideshare agreement Lyft and Didi Kuaidi formed in September. Together, these companies now cover nearly all of Southeast Asia, India, China and the United States, reaching nearly 50 percent of the world's population. Joint partner products will start rolling out in Q1 2016.

Through this global partnership, the companies will collaborate and leverage each other's technology, local market knowledge and business resources so that international travelers can seamlessly access local on-demand rides by using the same application they use at home. Each company will handle mapping, routing and payments through a secure API, providing the best global experience for the millions of travelers that cross between the U.S., Southeast Asia, India and China every year.

This international expansion follows rapid growth for each company in 2015:

• Lyft is the fastest-growing rideshare service in the Unites States, completing 7 million rides per month in more than 190 cities. In October, Lyft reached an annual gross run rate of $1 billion and reached over 40 percent market share in San Francisco and Austin.
• Didi Kuaidi is the world's largest one-stop mobile-based transportation platform providing 7 million rides per day across 360 Chinese cities. Didi Kuaidi holds an 83 percent market share in private car-hailing and a dominant position in all other verticals including taxi-hailing, bus and corporate services.
• GrabTaxi is the leading ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia with 95 percent market share in third-party taxi-hailing and more than 50 percent market share in private cars. With up to 1.5 million daily bookings across six countries, GrabTaxi offers the widest range of options in one mobile app including taxis, motorcycle taxis, private cars, carpooling and deliveries.
• Ola is India's preferred mobile platform for personal transportation available in 102 cities across the country. With more than 350,000 vehicles registered on its platform, Ola receives over a million booking requests a day.

Collectively, Lyft, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola have raised more than $7 billion. As the local leaders, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola will provide Lyft passengers traveling to Asia with unparalleled ease, convenience, and reliability.

"We're excited to join with Didi, Grab and Ola to make global travel simpler for passengers. Together they will allow Lyft to offer the world's best coverage, while building upon our shared vision of reconnecting communities through better transportation," said Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer. "This isn't solely a partnership of four companies, but also an opportunity to have a greater impact on the future of our cities worldwide."

"As Didi consolidates market leadership across all main verticals, we are now focused on applying more refined big-data tools to further develop product innovation and enhance the user experience," said Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Kuaidi. "The partnership with Lyft, GrabTaxi and Ola allows Chinese users unprecedented ease of international travel, and helps each of us improve our own services, leveraging our collective technology and expertise. This is a win for the diversity and vitality of the global rideshare industry."

"We are pleased to help Lyft, Didi and Ola offer transportation services in Southeast Asia where the significant diversity of language, culture and social practices across the region can be challenging for foreign companies to navigate," said Anthony Tan, CEO of GrabTaxi. "We admire all three companies and have similar goals to improve the lives of drivers and passengers, while also helping to solve major transportation challenges for the long term. Under this umbrella, we see many opportunities to share ideas and best practices – from product innovations to driver support, technology developments and approaches for managing local operations in a rapidly-scaling organization."

"We are excited to partner with Lyft, Didi Kuaidi and GrabTaxi, allowing seamless mobility access across hundreds of cities globally for our combined user base that runs into hundreds of millions," said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola. "This will also allow all four companies to learn from each other's local innovations and successes that can help us in our shared mission to build better mobility solutions in our respective markets."

About Lyft
Lyft was founded in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer to reconnect people and communities through better transportation. Lyft is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S and is available in more than 190 cities. Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to affecting positive change for the future of our cities.

About Didi Kuaidi
Didi Kuaidi is the world's largest comprehensive one-stop mobile transportation platform. At the end of November 2015, the company offers the full range of mobile technology-based transportation options for over 250 million users across 360 Chinese cities, ranging from taxi hailing, private car hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), Chauffeur, Didi Bus, and Didi Enterprise Solutions. Statistics show Didi holds over 80 percent of the private car service market and over 99 percent of the taxi hailing service market in China. Didi Kuaidi was named one of the World Economic Forum's Global Growth Companies in 2015.

About GrabTaxi
GrabTaxi is a leading transportation platform with a comprehensive suite of on-demand services across Southeast Asia. GrabTaxi began as a taxi-hailing app in 2012, but has extended its product platform to include private car services (GrabCar), motorcycle taxis (GrabBike), social carpooling (GrabHitch) and last mile delivery (GrabExpress). GrabTaxi is focused on pioneering new commuting alternatives for drivers and passengers with an emphasis on speed, safety and reliability. The Company currently offers services in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand through its mobile app platform, which has been downloaded more than 9 million times. Passengers can download the app to book rides on their smartphones and tablets (iOS: http://bit.ly/grabtaxi-iOSand Android: http://bit.ly/grabtaxi-Android). For more information, please visit: http://www.grabtaxi.com.

About Ola
Founded in Jan 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola (formerly Olacabs), is India's most popular mobile app for personal transportation. Ola integrates city transportation for customers and driver partners onto a mobile technology platform ensuring convenient, transparent and quick service fulfillment. Ola is committed to its mission of building mobility for a billion people. Using the Ola mobile app, users across 102 cities can book from over 350,000 vehicles across cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis on its platform. The app is available on Windows, Android and iOS platforms. Ola recently acquired TaxiForSure, India's second largest cab aggregator, which continues to operate as an independent brand. Please visit www.olacabs.com for more information.

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SOURCE Lyft