News

Dear Customers, 

On behalf of myself and the team here at Mobile Knowledge (MK), I would like to wish you and your team a very happy and prosperous new year!

The turn of the decade marks a new chapter for MK. As you know, MK was acquired from CMT by iCabbi in late December 2019. I’m communicating with you today to share more details of this with you and what this means for you as a customer. 

In short, it is business as usual for MK, and you will experience very little change as a customer. Please allow me to give you some context for this. 

iCabbi powers over 70,000 taxis with cloud-based dispatch technology in Ireland, the UK, Canada, America, Australia and Finland. It was founded in 2009 by Gavan Walsh, Niall O’Callaghan and Bob Nixon and is headquartered in their hometown of the Howth peninsula in Dublin.  iCabbi is part of Renault’s new Mobility as an Industry (M.A.I). Following this strategic partnership in 2018, it has invested heavily in building out its team, and now has over 150 employees, with 2 additional R&D hubs, one of which is very close to us, in Montreal. Since then iCabbi has been pursuing an ambitious growth plan to expand their global presence and deliver their vision of putting taxi companies at the centre of mobility. 

This involves both organic growth and growth through investment in partners who align with this vision. I am very pleased to say that MK is the first company iCabbi has invited to join the iCabbi Group, and we are excited to be working with a partner with huge ambition for the taxi industry.

We are now exploring synergies between MK and iCabbi. Earlier this month, a team from iCabbi, including CEO Gavan Walsh, travelled to Ottawa to begin this process. We had a hugely productive few days together and are confident that iCabbi are the right partner for us. However, there is a great deal of work to be done to fully understand where we can deliver mutually beneficial value and anticipate that this period of exploration will be a long-term project. 

An Executive Board has been set up for MK, and I am delighted to have already begun effectively collaborating with iCabbi co-founder Bob Nixon, who will adopt the position of Chair of this board, fellow Directors from iCabbi on MK’s board are Chief Strategy Officer Mick Tope with Chief Accounting Officer for North America Darla Worsham taking the position of Secretary and Treasurer of the board. MK’s Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer Francine Barbe will be joining myself as Directors from MK.

You can see most of the MK team on a warm January day were giving our new iCabbi friends a warm welcome!

For the foreseeable future, it is our intention for MK to carry on operating as a standalone business as it does today – that is a separate operation to iCabbi. The iCabbi platform and MK systems are two entirely different technology suites, each being both powerful and complex. There are therefore no plans to migrate to a single platform, and MK will continue to operate as an independent technology provider. Both companies have a large partner base and ecosystem that enhances and extends our dispatch technology. Synergies within the partner marketplace and community will also be explored. Rest assured that you will experience the same levels of service from the same people that you have always engaged with. 

CMT will continue to be the MK payment partner. 

• Support relating to CMT will need to be directed to cmthelp@cmtgroup.com
• All other support relating to MK will be handled by your regular customer service agents in MK, reachable at support@mobile-knowledge.com. 
• Furthermore, since our sales function was very much tied in with CMT and they are no longer part of MK, all queries relating to anything sales related can be directed to sales@mobile-knowledge.com. 

A final change I wish to draw your attention to, and one that is bittersweet for us all, is the departure of Travis Gray from MK. As many of you will know, Travis has made a huge contribution to MK for almost 20 years. He was instrumental in driving the success of MK and took an active and valued part in the recent iCabbi due diligence process. While we are sad to see him go, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Travis for his commitment and contribution to MK and to wish him the very, very best for his new path. 

On behalf of myself and the MK team, I would like to thank you for your support. Janet and I will be attending the TTA 2020 Spring Conference & Expo in Boston on the 18th and 19th of March, and would love the opportunity to meet with you there.

With warm regards, 

Kevin French