Ride-hailing platform Emddi raises $2 mln

Vietnamese ride-hailing platform Emddi has raised $2 million at online fundraising event Virtual Investment Day hosted by venture capitalist ThinkZone Ventures.

The fund will be used to invest in human resources and expand its market share, Emddi spokesperson said.

The company had completed last year its Series A funding round, led by ThinkZone Venture. The amount of investment raised was undisclosed.

It also reached a cooperation agreement with ride-hailing firm Be Group and Vietnam Taxi Alliance in April as part of efforts to increase its market share.

Emddi is a ride-hailing application developed in 2016 by scientists of Vietnam National University’s Centre for Information Technology. It provides a ride-hailing platform for transporting companies, allowing them to set their own prices and types of services. The platform receives ride requests from both ride-hailing orders on the application and phone calls to the transporting firms’ switchboard.

It allows customers to access the services of various transporting firms with one application.

Emddi currently operates in over 40 cities and provinces in Vietnam and Laos with 30,000 drivers. It provides car-hailing services and two additional services in Hanoi – ride-hailing service to airports and round-trip transport between Hanoi and other provinces.

The application allows cashless payment through e-wallets like VNPay, MoMo, Viettel Pay and Mobile Banking.

It plans to expand to motorbike-hailing service once its car-hailing has developed its market position, said its representative Le Van Nam. It is currently focusing on car-hailing since it does not have enough resources, he added.

Emddi expects Vietnam’s ride-hailing industry to grow by 16 percent to $4 billion in the next five years.