Toyota Financial Services is encouraging carpooling with its latest investment.
The captive bought a majority stake this week in London-based ride-sharing startup Faxi to engage in new mobility solutions and “introduce technology that will help reduce single-occupancy vehicles and the congestion and emissions that they cause,” Doug Gillies, managing director of Toyota Financial Services in the UK, said in a press release.
The size of the investment was unavailable by press time.
Founded in 2012, Faxi is an app-based service that connects users with colleagues who share the same route to work and commute at similar times.
The startup calls its program “incentivized carpooling,” because the app allows companies, like TFS, to verify employee ride-sharing and offer rewards, such as priority parking. The app also enables incentives for ride-sharing by reimbursing drivers for fuel and wear and tear.
TFS and Faxi started working together as partners in July 2018 to develop a Toyota-branded carpooling platform in Germany, called Toyota Financial Services Carpooling.
With the Faxi investment, TFS is aiming to scale the carpooling platform across Europe, the company said. Toyota currently runs projects across six cities in Europe and three around the globe. The company did not specify which cities.
TFS is the majority shareholder of Faxi alongside Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe/Toyota Insurance Management and existing shareholder the Indigo group.
The investment is not Toyota’s first foray into the ride-sharing space. Last year, TFS parent company Toyota Motor Corp. shelled out $1 billion for a stake in Singapore-based Grab and invested $500 million in Uber Technologies Inc.
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