Ridesharing startup Gett raises $80 million at a $1.4 billion valuation

Israel-based ride sharing app Gett said Thursday it raised more than $80 million from investors, according to a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Volkswagen Group, already an investor in the startup, took part in the latest funding round, which included private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partner and billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, the firm said in a statement.

The company has raised a total of $700 million to date, including the latest round. In 2016, the company raised $300 million from the Volkswagen Group.

The company, which operates as Juno in New York, has operations in 120 cities globally and sells rides for more than $1 billion, half of them in New York and London. Among the Gett markets, New York is growing at the fastest pace, with approximately 45,000 drivers – more than 50 percent of all taxi drivers – having joined Juno. In London, more than half the black taxis work with Gett.

Gett’s CEO and founder, Shahar Waiser, who also goes by the name of Dave, said he expects the company to become profitable in every country it operates “by the first quarter of 2019 — much before our competitors.” This does not include the countries in which it has only R&D operations, the statement said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli website Calcalist reported that Gett was in the process of raising $350 million, after it didn’t manage to raise an even larger sum of money, as originally planned, because of its relatively high valuation of $2 billion.

A spokeswoman for Gett denied the report.