This Uber Competitor Is Coming To America With $17 Million In Funding From Accel

Taxi-app company Hailo has raised $17 million in a series A round led by Accel Partners.

It is a smartphone app that lets passengers order a cab with two taps, either on the iPhone or Android.

The app has been downloaded nearly 200,000 times.

Hailo founder Jay Bregman's pitch:

"The taxi market is fundamentally inefficient. In every major city, drivers spend 30 to 50 percent of their time desperately looking for passengers, while people find it difficult to find a taxi. Hailo was conceived to solve this problem -- inefficiency on the driver side and lack of accessibility for passengers."

The company was founded by three London cab drivers and three entrepreneurs in November 2010.

Hailo will use the money from the funding round to come to America, and continue to build out the network in London and Dublin.

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