With just $7 million, this startup is challenging Uber in Australia

Taxi booking app GoCatch is launching a ridesharing component, Tech in Asia reports

Sydney-based taxi booking app GoCatch is launching a ridesharing component, the company announced today. Much like Grab’s GrabCar service, GoCatch users will be able to hail a GoCar using the GoCatch app.

“There are no other players in ridesharing [in Australia at the moment],” GoCatch CEO Ned Moorfield said. “We think it’s possible for a local player to achieve similar success to what Grab has achieved in Southeast Asia and Lyft in the US – to be a strong local competitor to Uber.”

The five-year-old startup has been steadily growing in Australia through its taxi-booking service. It currently has 350,000 passengers on its platform and processes 100,000 bookings per month, according to Ned. 

GoCatch also stresses that it won’t use the surge pricing model implemented by Uber, where large demand leads to inflated prices. “People really resent surge pricing in Australia,” Ned says. “We hear from a lot of drivers that when surge pricing is on, people stop using the app and liquidity dries up.”

GoCar instead will have clearly defined peak and off-peak rates, peak being weekday morning commutes and weekend evening to early morning rides.

GoCar will also charge drivers a lower commission – 15% versus Uber’s 20% – while fares will be 20 to 30% cheaper than taxi off-peak fares and 10 to 15% cheaper than taxi peak fares. 

GoCatch is also counting on the image of a local competitor versus an international powerhouse as an advantage. “We’ve seen second local players in other markets like Singapore and we think people respond well to a local choice, and to the fact that we’re a 100% Australian-owned company and we pay our fair share of taxes here,” Ned says.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.