MyTaxi Philippines Inc., the operator of GrabCar and GrabTaxi, plans to expand its private hire vehicle booking service to the cities of Cebu and Davao by the end of the year.
“For GrabCar, we’re focusing in Metro Manila, but we are looking at expanding in Cebu and Davao. GrabTaxi started also there, so probably we will follow the same path,” Natasha Bautista, head of GrabCar Philippines, told reporters.
Bautista said that the company planned to undertake an initial public offering in the future.
“Of course that’s the mission, everyone wants to do that, but right now we want to make sure that we hit our numbers, we can’t really say right now,” she said.
GrabCar, the private vehicle booking service available through the GrabTaxi app, is the first to be fully accredited as a Transportation Network Company by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
Bautista said the GrabCar accreditation validated the company’s efforts in providing the safest and most convenient rides for passengers in the Philippines.
“With full accreditation, more Filipino commuters will be able to use GrabCar and be confident that we offer a legitimate and safe private hire service. We will now focus on rapidly expanding our GrabCar service to serve more passengers across the Philippines,” he said.
GrabTaxi, meanwhile, is available in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod and Baguio.
The Southeast Asia’s leading transport app Grab Taxi had said it would invest $4 million to ensure passenger safety in the Philippines and other countries in the region.
“We must continue to ensure that our safety standards are not compromised. This is why we’ve hired Yiling Kok as our regional head of safety, and will continue to set aside funds and resources for safety and security,” said GrabTaxi Group chief executive Anthony Tan.
Over 83,000 taxi drivers have been using the GrabTaxi app, since its founding in 2012, to receive bookings in Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. There have been over 4.4 million downloads of the app around the region.