iCabbi, an Irish automated taxi booking company, has acquired the research and development team of the now-defunct all-electric cab company Téo Taxi, and has opened a new office in Téo Taxi’s home city of Montreal.
“Montreal was an attractive base to support our expansion into North America, proving itself as a hub for R&D in tech mobility.”
With close ties to Montreal’s AI and tech mobility scene, the company aims to invest in the city’s innovation ecosystem and local tech talent.
“We are extremely pleased that iCabbi recognized the value in keeping these high-quality tech jobs based here in Montréal, where we can continue to contribute to the tech mobility ecosystem here and now on a larger scale, internationally,” said Yasha Sekhavat, the former chief marketing and product officer for Téo Taxi who now joins iCabbi as its VP of product for North America.
iCabbi provides cloud-based taxi dispatch systems that integrate with websites, booking engines, and mobile booking apps. The platform uses artificial intelligence for its Intelligent Voice Assistant (EiVA), to simplify the booking experience for both the customer and the taxi company.
Téo Taxi, owned by Taxelco, was co-founded in 2014 and acquired Montreal’s biggest tax fleet in 2016. The company, which sought to challenge ride-sharing behemoths like Uber with a fleet of electric cars, laid off all its drivers in January. Shortly after Téo Taxi ceased operations, iCabbi opened a new office in Montréal.
iCabbi said the 21 developers joining its Montreal-based team will bring local knowledge and expertise to iCabbi’s global customer base, working on best in class user booking experience, data science, and accelerating electric vehicle (EV) and AI integration in the iCabbi Dispatch solution.
“It was an unmissable opportunity that fit with our strategy,” said iCabbi founder and CEO, Gavan Walsh. “EVs, AI, and data are key to our plans to continue transforming forward-thinking taxi fleets throughout the world.
As the location of Canada’s AI supercluster, Montreal has also seen accelerators like NextAI and TechStars, as well as companies like DeepMind and Borealis AI open or move operations to the city.
“Montreal was also an attractive base to support our expansion into North America, proving itself as a hub for R&D in tech mobility, and this team shares our vision and ambition,” said Walsh. “We’ve now got the largest dev team in this space and are in a rapid innovation phase across current and new solutions for our customers.”
The Montreal team now brings the company’s R&D team to more than 76 employees and its total headcount to more than 150, including iCabbi’s presence in Canada, the US, and Europe.
Image courtesy iCabbi.