Minicabit, the UK’s leading online mini-cab price comparison and booking service, today announces it has secured £1.4 million in funding from some of the UK’s best known investors and business leaders.
The funding was heavily oversubscribed and led by Hambro Perks, alongside the team at Oakley Capital. Hambro Perks recently backed Laundrapp, the on-demand app disrupting the dry-cleaning sector and will take a seat on minicabit’s Board, and Oakley Capital has previously advised on the flotation of JustEat and investment in The Hut Group.
These high-profile investors include Rupert Hambro, one of the UK’s most respected merchant bankers, Dominic Perks, a serial entrepreneur and successful active investor Peter Dubens, founder of Oakley Capital, the leading asset management and advisory group.
Business leaders who participated include Adrian McAlpine, a Partner at Sir Robert McAlpine, one of the UK’s most well-established engineering and construction companies and the Sangster family, best known as leading thoroughbred racehorse owners and breeders.
In its previous funding round, minicabit attracted the backing of Telefonica O2’s Wayra Fund, crowdfunding site Seedrs, investor syndicate Angels4Angels and was also the first mobile app to win offers on BBC TV’s ‘Dragons’ Den’, from three of the Dragons.
With this fresh funding, minicabit plans to double the number of its partner cab fleets in its national cab network over the next year from 700 currently, to account for about a quarter of all cab fleets in the UK.
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This new backing will also enable minicabit to meet growing demand from a wide range of sectors, including leading hotel groups and iconic tourist attractions, to feature minicabit on a white-labelled basis to service their customers’ first and last mile home.
The business was founded by Amer Hasan, ex-Global Head of Apps and Internet Partnerships at Vodafone. He was recently nominated for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, the benchmark for entrepreneurial success in the UK, backed by NatWest.
Minicabit’s Board benefits from Steven Norris, Former UK Transport Minister, as a Board Adviser, with Paul Lawton, O2 UK General Manager of Small and Medium Businesses and Hambro Perks’ Nick Wentworth-Stanley, a former CEO of the largest members’ agency at Lloyds of London, both serving as Non-Executive Directors.
Minicabit founder and COE Amer Hasan commented that “cab bookings are now shifting online at a tremendous pace, driven by customer demand and technology advances”.
“Far from seeing this as ‘game over’ for the Cab Operators, we think the game has only just begun,” he continued.
“Some of the earliest UK entrants were perhaps armed with more money than sense, whereas minicabit has quietly grown its cab network, industry leading partnerships and superior online features to enable customers everywhere to pre-book a great cab deal on any device.”
Further reading: Highland Europe launches $332m fund
