Sky News has learnt that Gett is close to finalising a $60m (£47m) funding round – its first external funding since it secured $200m from investors just over a year ago.

Sources said on Monday that the new funding would be structured as a loan note that would convert into shares in Gett when the company completes a stock market listing.

Gett has made no secret of its plans to become a public company, initially setting a 2019 target for an initial public offering before pushing that back to the first quarter of this year.

People close to the business now believe a 2021 flotation is more likely as the global economy tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Gett, which launched in the UK in 2011, counts PricewaterhouseCoopers, RBS and Uniqlo among its corporate customers.

As a SaaS cloud solution, Gett offers the unique ability to consolidate any collection of vendors, in-country and globally, on a single booking platform. Whether for on-demand ride-hailing, taxi, chauffeur, or limousine services, we provide our enterprise clients with a best-in-class app and advanced back-end technology that consolidates all options across 100 countries, typically saving 30% of global ground travel costs.

Founded in 2010, Gett has always forged strong relationships with corporate clients. Immediately after launching the consumer app in 2010, Gett signed its first corporate customer. Over 15,000 corporations now continue to enjoy the benefits of Gett’s services.

Gett raised more than $800M in total funding, with $300M+ coming from the world’s #1 carmaker, The Volkswagen Group.

The company is now aiming to become the clear leader in the business-to-business market as it seeks to differentiate itself from rivals in the consumer ride-hailing market. ride hailing app gett