Frank is a bot that lets you order taxi on Facebook and Telegram. After raising 250,000 euros from two private investors, the Latvian team has launched its minimum viable product and prepares for a bigger round after proof of concept in first cities is complete. But there’s more to the story.
We have covered Frank Taxibot before when they had just built the prototype. Frank gives its Facebook orders to a community of local taxi apps and services, who have signed up to take orders in each city. The pilot service already works in Riga, with other cities to follow, based on user interest. Meanwhile, you can already get an accurate estimate of your taxi fare anywhere in the world, simply by messaging Frank.
Frank isn’t just another trendy way to order taxi. The team has a deep mission to help local taxi apps and services reclaim their markets in the face of global heavyweights like Uber or Lyft.
“We support local taxi market players to improve the economies of each country instead of destroying them. We create local jobs that pay local taxes to local communities instead of sending them abroad. Several financial institutions and private investors support our idea,” states Dmitri Morev, the CEO of Frank Taxibot.
One for all and all for one taxi!
According to Dmitri, the taxibot is just the beginning. 80 local taxi apps and services in over 600 cities around the world have already signed up to join their next level – Frankly Partnership. The partnership will enable all Frank Taxibot’s partners to share taxi orders among themselves in exchange for a commission. Now any local app can serve its clients globally.
“No one local taxi app can hope to become global. But all together they can,” stresses Dmitri. “We encourage all taxi apps to unite now to keep local markets instead of waiting for global giants to come and destroy the industry one by one.”
Dmitri is excited to see growing interest in Frankly Partnership. He says most contracts were signed even before the tech was finished. Now it is only a matter of legal and technical integration.
The team has experience in taxi market, a finished taxibot and partner API. They made some bold promises, expect to break even by the end of 2017 and raise a bigger round soon. Will current investors in world’s numerous local taxi app see Frank as a good bet?
