Israeli Taxi Startup Gett Raises $120m as It Eyes IPO

Gett, the Israeli ride-hailing startup that focuses primarily on the business market, signaled on Tuesday that it was following Uber and Lyft and gearing up for an initial public offering after it raised $120 million from private investors.

Gett said it raised the money in a mix of equity and debt capital in a round that valued the company at $1.5 billion. The investors were all existing shareholders, including the German carmaker VW, Access and its founder Len Blavatnik, Kreos and MCI.

Speaking to the Financial Times , CEO Dave Waiser said Gett’s IPO would be either in London or Tel Aviv.

Waiser said he would be looking to see how rival taxi firm Lyft performs after it went public in March at a $22.2 billion valuation. “We will see how Lyft goes, we believe there’s a lot of public capital waiting for the [technology] darlings [Uber and Lyft], but we also believe that our business model makes sense,” he said.

Unlike other app-based ride-hailing firms, Gett’s technology links business passengers with traditional operators such as New York yellow taxi firms and London black cabs.