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KOI Ride is a tech start-up company headquartered in Dubai, providing B2B ride-hailing services for the global travel industry. KOI’s proprietary technology is the core for the revolutionary end-to-end ground transport provider, connecting online booking portals such as Booking.com, Expedia, Holtelbeds & others with licensed transportation providers around the globe, enabling travelers to book their customized airport transfers and helping drivers increase their efficiency and earn more.
KOI Ride already commenced its ride-hailing operations in 2018 with over 25,000 rides in Dubai only, followed by an 87% surged ride-booking in 2019. The widespread COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant fall by 74% in 2020, which led the company to revamp its strategy by launching its services in selected cities with high tourism frequency including London at end of 2020, followed by Barcelona, Lisbon, and Istanbul in 2021.
Today, the company is back on track and offers its services in Dubai, London, New York, Las Vegas, Cancun, Istanbul, Bodrum, Antalya, Izmir, Dalaman. Additional 24 cities in the Americas, Europe and Middle East will go live this year based on KOI’s global expansion strategy of launching its service in 50 international cities within the next 24 months with revenue in excess of $112M by 2024.
“We have seen the travel industry recover at a tremendous pace in 2022, people are excited to travel once again and we are on pace to hit 2019 numbers. With airport transfers being one of the most profitable products for Online Travel Agencies and people leaning more towards a private transfer than a shared one post COVID” said Riyaz Alambath CEO and Co-Founder. “KOI Ride is positioned perfectly to take advantage of the recovery. Through the use of our technology, we are helping OTA’s standardize the quality of service globally with the aim of increasing the global market size” added Ghassan Muradwij, CFO and Co-Founder.
CEG Invest has partnered with Taurus Wealth Financial Advisors (DIFC) and they have with KOI successfully closed an initial equity raise of $3M through a strategic investor who joined the company’s board of directors early 2022. Furthermore, KOI Ride has issued a $15M convertible bond secured by a pledge of its shares that pays a fixed coupon of 8% p.a. (paid quarterly) plus accumulated profit participation of $2M at maturity in November 2024. With the conversion option, the bond targets an annualized IRR of over 25% based on the 50% discount on the share price at conversion.
Assessing the lucrative investment opportunity and growth potential, the largest Swiss Private Bank has invested $2M anchor money in the Convertible Bond besides another $0.35M by a Geneva and Dubai based asset management company. Additional commitments over $3M have been secured by two institutional investors to facilitate KOI Ride’s ambitious growth plans including a potential investment allowing KOI Ride access to over 20 cities immediately.
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