Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
lynked in
Having taken off like a train here, the Irish Hailo has its sights set on the UK
Lynk taxis are looking to hit the British market with a €25 million expansion.
NOT CONTENT WITH challenging taxi giant Hailo on Irish shores, Lynk cabs are soon to try their hand at the UK market.
Founder of Lynk, tech entrepreneur Noel Ebbs, says the company will turn its focus to a British expansion by the end of the year once its Irish app has gone countrywide.
“I think there’s room for three or four apps in Dublin, so in London there is even greater scope,” he told TheJournal.ie.
It’s not an Irish thing though, that’s relevant here of course but not there.
Basically the opportunities are there and we have to take them. After putting the time and effort in that we have done we have to take every chance that comes our way.
We have partners in almost every British city so now is the time to do it.
Investors for the British expansion will come mostly from Ireland and the UK itself.
But Lynk’s foreign ambitions aren’t done there – the US is on their horizon as well.
“To be honest a launch in the US would be less problematic than one in the UK,” says Ebbs.
The modifications we’d have to make to the app for the British market don’t apply to the states at all.
We’ve already had strong interest in our app from Washington, so logically that’s where the next expansion will be.
But we can’t afford the false starts that other apps have had. We need to get it right first time.
The taxi app business has become an enormous one in recent times, and as such has become incredibly competitive also (as evidenced by Hailo pulling out of North America and pretty much every Uber story), making survival not for the faint-hearted.
It was this level of competition that gave birth to Lynk in the first place.
Ebbs says that his company aims to have 5,000 drivers signed up by the end of the year.
Lynk, originally launched last October and officially launched in February, already boasts roughly 2,800 Irish drivers on its roster.
The company employs about 175 people at its base in Newmarket, Dublin 8.
Its main selling points for the customer are the fact that it’s an Irish product and all the drivers are fully vetted; from the driver’s point of view, Lynk charges membership fees rather than commission making a driver’s income easier to manage in theory.
Features exclusive to its app include the ability to make bookings in advance of journeys and multiple bookings at the same time.
have your say