The news comes from the Financial times via Gawker. The backing out of the North American market can be blamed on fierce competition from companies like Uber and Lyft.
The company launched in North America just two years ago.
Hailo has about $77 million in funding from American investors, and will now apparently use that money to focus on European and Asian markets. In a statement to Mashable, Tom Barr, president and co-CEO of Hailo, said that “astronomical marketing spend” is required for one company to compete in the heated market, something Hailo cannot afford.
Competition also drove a huge wave of price cuts. Mashable reported earlier that within days of Hailo announcing price-matching on cab fares, Uber announced price cuts of 20 percent.
The withdrawal means losing a number of cab drivers across North America. Last year, Hailo had about 2,000 Boston cab drivers on its system, or about one-third of all cab drivers in the city. Operations in Boston, D.C. and Chicago will all be shuttered.
However, there may still be some hope for Toronto, TechCrunch reports, as the sole Canadian operation looks to continue under license.
