Verifone Acquires Curb To Expand Taxi e-Hail Payments Business

Verifone announced today (Oct. 13) that it has expanded its taxi and car-for-hire electronic hailing (e-hail), payment and media business with the acquisition of Curb.

Curb, a business that connects people with rides from professional, insured, and fully-licensed taxi drivers, spans 60 cities and hails rides for more than 100,000 passengers per month. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

By acquiring Curb, Verifone will be able to enhance its e-hail and payment app business by using Curb’s technology and expansive driver network across the U.S. Curb’s e-hail app, allowing riders to tap into Web and SMS text-based booking tools that will allow Verifone Taxi Systems to scale its own e-hail offering, giving the company an edge in the industry.

“We are combining Curb’s booking technology set and geographic footprint with Verifone Taxi Systems’ global presence and expertise in secure payment, and cloud-based dispatch and fleet management tools,” said Amos Tamam, Senior Vice President, Global Taxi Systems for Verifone. “This will allow us to continue our push into the growing market for apps that provide riders with the convenience of connecting to professional vehicles and drivers through their mobile phone. We’re now even better equipped to offer convenient, dependable, and secure ride booking tools for the taxi operators, drivers and passengers that, for our 2015 fiscal year, will have participated in more than 180 million trips in Verifone-equipped taxis in the U.S.”

Curb, an Alexandria, Virginia-based company, has partnered with more than 90 cab companies and provides e-hail access to 35,000 cars from a smartphone app that combines hailing and payment. While approximately 40,000 U.S. taxis are equipped with Verifone payment terminals, Curb’s media-enabled payment terminals are installed in approximately 15,000 cars.

“Passengers are looking for the assurance that they are hailing safe, regulated, insured vehicles,” said Sanders Partee, Curb co-founder and president. “Verifone has the geographic reach and critical mass of connected vehicles to ensure that Curb can provide the safest, most reliable rides to consumers looking for an e-hail and mobile payment option.”

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