On-demand mobile taxi hailing service GrabTaxi has raised over $15 million in Series B, led by GGV Capital.
The latest round for the Southeast Asia-focused service includes participation from travel search service Qunar and Vertex Venture Holdings.
Currently, GrabTaxi operates its service in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
The new fund will be used to further expand its service into new cities in the region and roll out a driver loyalty and retention programme, as well as launch initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of its drivers.
GGV Capital's managing partner Jixun Foo will be joining GrabTaxi’s board of directors. Foo also serves on boards of travel brands including Qunar and Tujia.
Foo says:
"We are excited about working with Anthony (founder of GrabTaxi) and his team. Their focus and understanding of local markets will fuel their success and provide competitive advantage. Therefore we believe that GrabTaxi for Southeast Asia and Didi(Dache) for China will be the go-to transport app in their regional markets."
This funding announcement comes just over 50 days from the company's series A round for "eight digit figure amount" led Vertex Venture Holdings, and a group of angel investors from Malaysia.
GrabTaxi's has over 20,000 taxi drivers in its system and it estimates that one in two active taxi drivers in the region will be on the GrabTaxi network by the end of 2015.
The company estimates its target base as 600 million people in the region.
Over 250,000 users across 15 cities use its mobile app at least once per month to hail a taxi, and its apps have been collectively downloaded onto more than 1.2 million mobile devices, according to the company.
Similar to Uber Black, the luxury taxi hailing service of Uber, GrabTaxi also recently launched a similar service by name GrabCar, a limousine hiring service.
Competitors of GrabTaxi in the region include Uber, EasyTaxi (Rocket Internet-backed), TaxiMonger, and MoobiTaxi.