Lyft agrees to buy London black cab app Gett, its third acquisition in the past year, as the company expands its presence beyond the US
Context & Ripple Effects
Lyft’s purchase agreement for Gett follows its €175M acquisition of FreeNow, which marked its first expansion beyond the US and Canada. The two moves show Lyft building an international presence through established local taxi platforms rather than relying solely on organic market entry.
Gett has itself been part of ride-hailing consolidation, having acquired Juno in 2017. This transaction places a London black-cab-focused service inside Lyft’s growing portfolio of regional operations.
First-order effects
- Lyft gains an agreed route into Gett’s London black-cab platform, extending the company’s acquisition-driven international footprint beyond the FreeNow deal.
- Gett shifts from being an independently funded ride-hailing operator to a planned Lyft-owned business, subject to completion and integration.
Second-order effects
- Lyft will have to integrate Gett alongside FreeNow while preserving the local taxi relationships and operating models that make those services useful in their markets.
- The deal adds to consolidation pressure on independent ride-hailing and taxi-booking platforms, particularly those with local regulatory access or established driver networks.
Third-order effects
- If Lyft continues to buy regional operators, international ride-hailing competition may increasingly be shaped by ownership of local taxi platforms and market access rather than by direct greenfield launches.
- The pattern suggests a more consolidated, multi-market industry in which local brands and taxi partnerships can become acquisition assets for larger mobility platforms.
The trend: Ride-hailing platforms are using acquisitions of established local taxi and booking networks to assemble international scale market by market.