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Australian founded start-up Splend arrives to boost London’s ride-share economy

Splend, the Australian-founded company helping on-demand drivers succeed on their own terms, has moved its HQ to London from Sydney while expanding its senior leadership team, and has opened a comprehensive support centre for the 90,000 drivers working in the capital.

Splend provides eco-friendly and affordable cars to on-demand drivers, who work for companies like Uber. Most importantly, drivers also benefit from the unique training, analytics and community provided by the company, empowering them to become more profitable, safer, and fulfilled in their work. Splend also handles all of the necessary financing, insurance and maintenance, so that drivers can focus on earning an income.

Founded in Sydney in 2015, the start-up has raised $10 million equity to date and expanded to nine cities in Europe, the Americas and Australia, whilst building a global team of over 150 employees. The company, backed by Investec, is also making a significant investment in its leadership team here in the UK with new executive hires from Deliveroo, Addison Lee and Argos joining the team. David Moggs has been appointed CTO, joining from Argos, whilst Gizem Akyil moves from Deliveroo to become Splend’s Head of Expansion, and UK Country Manager Justin Patterson joins from Addison Lee.

“Splend exists to help drivers succeed by making sure on-demand driving works for them - not the other way around,” Chris King, CEO and Founder at Splend said. “Splend has grown quickly and established a reputation as innovators in the industry - and this is reflected in the high calibre of the staff that we’re attracting. The UK, which is home to over 250,000 ride-share drivers, is the ideal base for us to continue our global expansion.”

Splend’s new driver hub, a 2,300 square metre facility in Cricklewood, enables members to collect their cars, catch up with their personal account manager, get advanced driver training and join community events. The company has also partnered with London-based ‘insurtech’, Zego to insure its UK fleet, with the cover based on telematics and priced by the mile.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Splend .