Israeli startup Juno is taking the fight fight to Uber. Juno intends to give its drivers some equity in the company, and will take only a 10 percent cut of every ride compared to Uber’s 20-25 percent.
But the battle will not be so easy. It is entering the market seven years after Uber, which is now the most valuable privately-held company in the world.
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Uber has raised more than $8 billion in funding from investors and operates in 380 cities around the world.
Competitor Lyft has raised $2 billion in funding, operates in more than 200 cities and has formed an international alliance with other Uber rivals.
“At the end of the day, people want to ride with a happy driver — and Juno drivers are happier, ” Juno co-founder Talmon Marco told CNNMoney.
Based in Tel Aviv, the New ride-sharing startup is majority owned by the founders of messaging app Viber, which sold to Rakuten for $900 million in 2014.
Talmon said that Juno has so far raised “eight figures” in financing, coming from friends, family and the founders’ personal money.
Juno is slated to launch in its first market, New York City, this spring. Talmon claims to already have “thousands” of drivers signed up to work with the company.
Juno will require that drivers have a minimum 4.70 rating from Uber and other services, said Marco.
By 2026, drivers will own 50 percent of all founding shares in the company. That means drivers can then be equal partners with the cofounders of Juno, and will get to benefit if and when the company sells or goes public. As Junos’ founders get diluted in fundraising events, drivers will too.
“At the heart of Juno is a belief that it’s time for a ride sharing service that treated drivers right, ” Talmon tells FORBES. “It is time for an ethical, socially responsible ride sharing service. And that’s what we are doing.”
According CNN Money, Talmon set out to explore the ride hailing market in 2014 after hearing “a lot of noise” that drivers weren’t happy driving with Uber.
He said that’s why he and his cofounders realized there was a big opportunity to build a driver-friendly business, one where drivers are actually partners in the company’s success.
READ MORE: Talmon-Marco
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