Free Now (service)


FREE NOW is a mobility provider headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. FREE NOW was formed in February 2019 from the joint venture between BMW and Daimler Mobility, and Marc Berg is CEO of the FREE NOW Group.
The FREE NOW Group is the ride-hailing vertical of this joint venture; other services within the vertical include Beat, Clever, Hive and Kapten. FREE NOW is one of the largest e-hailing companies in Europe. The service was founded in 2009 and previously known as Hailo and myTaxi. On July 1, 2019 myTaxi was rebranded to FREE NOW serving over 100 European cities including Madrid, Berlin, Dublin, Paris and London. FREE NOW customer care and support teams operate from Dublin, Hamburg, Madrid, and Warsaw among other European cities. The CEO of FREE NOW Europe is Eckart Diepenhorst. The UK General Manager is David Savage, and the General Manager in Ireland is Alan Fox.

History

mytaxi was founded by German entrepreneurs Niclaus Mewes and Sven Külper. Later that year, the pair founded the legal entity behind mytaxi, Intelligent Apps. In September 2014, Daimler acquired mytaxi's parent company, Intelligent Apps, entering the ride hailing market.
In 2016, the German e-hailing app mytaxi merged with Hailo. Founded in London in 2011, Hailo was a British technology platform that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application. The merger between mytaxi and Hailo made mytaxi the largest licensed taxi e-hailing operator.
Following regulatory approval in February 2019, Daimler and BMW announced the €1bn mobility joint-venture; the parent company is known as Your Now which also operates Share Now, Reach Now, Park Now and Charge Now.

Mobile application and e-hailing

The FREE NOW app uses mobile and GPS technology to match taxi drivers with passengers based on availability and proximity, and requires a valid phone number and valid form of payment to operate. The FREE NOW app is compatible with both iOS and Android mobile devices, and works with licensed taxis, including black cabs in the UK.
Depending on location, customers can order a taxi, E-scooter or car through the app.