Karhoo
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Karhoo was a taxi comparison and booking app founded in 2014 by British entrepreneur Daniel Ishag. Instead of signing up individual drivers like Uber, it aggregated prices and offerings from established fleets and car services (including Addison Lee, Carmel and Dial 7) into a single app, letting users compare cabs by price, proximity and vehicle type, with a pre-booking option. Launched in London in May 2016, the app was downloaded about 300,000 times and the company employed around 200 staff across London, New York, Singapore and Tel Aviv.
02 / Karhoo FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Karhoo burned through its funding and ran out of cash within about six months of its London launch. Operating in a hyper-competitive market, it heavily subsidized rides to win market share, generating less than $1 million in revenue in its first 12 weeks in London against far higher costs. Last-minute talks with a potential emergency backer collapsed, employees went unpaid for six weeks, and only about $10,000 was left in the company's account when trading stopped.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Karhoo was founded in London by Daniel Ishag as a taxi comparison app aggregating existing fleets rather than signing individual drivers.
- London launch
Karhoo launched in London in May 2016, claiming 33,000 cars on the platform and reaching about 300,000 app downloads.
- Shutdown and administration
On November 8, 2016 Karhoo announced it would close its service after running out of money and failing to secure emergency funding; it ceased trading on November 7 and Karhoo Limited and Karhoo Technologies Ltd were placed into administration with Paul Cooper and Paul Appleton of David Rubin & Partners as joint administrators.
- Rescued by RCI Bank
In January 2017 RCI Bank and Services (the Renault-Nissan financial services provider) bought Karhoo out of administration through a new venture, Flit Technologies, relaunching the company.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Karhoo raised a reported $250 million (the figure was disputed, with some sources saying it was much lower), and exhausted it within about 18 months.
- 02
The app generated slightly less than $1 million in revenue in its first 12 weeks in London while heavily subsidizing rides.
- 03
Talks with a potential emergency backer collapsed the night before the shutdown; only about $10,000 remained in the company account.
- 04
The company ceased trading on November 7, 2016 and went into administration.
- 05
RCI Bank and Services bought the company out of administration in January 2017 for an undisclosed sum via Flit Technologies.
- 06
No audited company loss figure was disclosed.