Transport technology firm iCabbi says it will create 120 jobs over the next three years as it seeks to develop its Dublin office as a global hub for its business.

The company, which provides cloud-based dispatch tools for taxi companies and private hire operators, is hoping to fill 60 job vacancies immediately. Among the areas the company is recruiting for are architecture, dev-ops, dispatch and automation. The new hires will have the opportunity to work on advanced fleet utilisation, cloud infrastructure, open API excellence, app development, business intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Gavan Walsh, chief executive and founder of iCabbi, said the firm intended to locate the jobs in Ireland, but acknowledged there could be issues in getting suitable candidates.

“Research and development folk can be difficult to find,” he said.

The company is keen to build its office in Sutton into a global centre of innovation for the transport industry.

Investment

iCabbi has customers in the UK, the United States, Canada and Finland. Earlier this year, RCI Bank and Services – a subsidiary of French car maker Renault – took a 75 per cent stake in the firm. That investment has helped spur the company on to develop new services to the industry, which has come under threat globally from the rise of ride sharing.

“The needs of taxi companies have changed dramatically in a short space of time,” Mr Walsh said.

iCabbi was founded in 2010, initially focusing on the consumer market. However, with the advent of services such as Uber and Hailo (now MyTaxi), the firm changed focus to the business market.

“We found a niche,” he said. “We’ve grown exponentially every year.”

The company now handles 3.5 million bookings on its systems every week and has more than 73,000 cars on its system. But Mr Walsh said it was only the beginning. “There’s a long way to go in terms of growth,” he said, noting that the sector was still in the early days of its transformation.

He said the long-term strategy was to unite the taxi industry to help them compete with the threats brought by new entrants to the market by providing a solid platform on which taxi firms could innovate. Mr Walsh dubbed the future “Taxi 2.0”.

“The industry is still consolidating,” he said. “We can play a key part in the future.“