Four major rideshare services – Lyft, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola – have entered into a strategic partnership to provide international travelers seamless access to local on-demand rides by using the same application they use at home. Lyft partnered with Didi Kuaidi in September and as part of the alliance, Didi has invested $100 million in Lyft, in a financing round led by Rakuten earlier this year that also included Carl Icahn, Alibaba and Tencent.
"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."
Spanning across Southeast Asia, India, China and the U.S., the companies will collaborate and leverage each other's technology, local market knowledge and business resources to reach out to almost 50 percent of world population. As a result of this partnership, an Indian Ola customer travelling to Southeast Asia, China and the U.S. will be able to hail a cab using the same app on his/her phone, The Economic Times explained.
Each company will handle mapping, routing and payments through a secure API, providing the best global experience for the millions of travelers in these countries. Joint partner products will start rolling out in the first quarter of 2016.
The partnership seems to counter the rising global reach of one of the leading companies in the ridesharing space – Uber. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the company is seeking to raise as much as $2.1 billion in a financing round that would bring its valuation at $62.5 billion.
