Go’s IPO — Japan’s largest up to now this 12 months — has achieved greater than present a much-needed enhance to the nation’s languishing itemizing season. It has additionally equipped the taxi-hailing app with the capital required to deal with an existential concern: Japan’s scarcity of drivers.
Go, which went public Tuesday, plans to make use of the ¥88.6 billion ($553 million) raised in its IPO to increase its robotaxi enterprise and make acquisitions, in line with an organization spokesperson.
“We intend to make use of the proceeds from the sale of newly issued shares towards funding in analysis and improvement associated to robotaxis and funding in enterprise expansions, together with strategic mergers and acquisitions in our enterprise inside and outdoors of the taxi business,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The Japanese taxi-hailing firm’s debut got here in one in every of Japan’s quietest itemizing seasons, at a time when the federal government has been telling startups to sell themselves reasonably than go public. Go drew investments from BlackRock, Wellington Administration, and M&G Funding Administration within the course of, underscoring the place world institutional cash is prepared to go in Japan proper now. The inventory has since pulled again under its providing value, closing at ¥2,314 on Friday, down about 4% from the IPO value of ¥2,400.
Go’s robotaxi ambitions are rooted in a human downside. Japan’s taxi business is running out of drivers. The variety of taxi drivers has fallen roughly 20% in recent years, in line with a report citing Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
An ageing inhabitants signifies that determine is unlikely to recuperate. Ride-share services launched in Japan in 2024, however stay restricted to sure areas and require drivers to be employed by a taxi firm; restrictions which have achieved little to deal with the scarcity.
Go was founded in 1977 as a taxi operator and now runs Japan’s largest ride-hailing app with 35 million downloads, 85,000 accomplice autos, and an 80% share of Japan’s taxi app market by utilization time, protecting 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures.
Go believes robotaxis will probably be a part of its future — though it’s not clear when that imaginative and prescient will grow to be a actuality.
Go has partnered with Waymo, an autonomous driving subsidiary of Alphabet, alongside Nihon Kotsu, one in every of Japan’s largest taxi operators. Go is answerable for strategic coordination of the partnership, in line with the spokesperson. CEO Hiroshi Nakajima has beforehand mentioned that Go won’t spend money on autonomous driving methods itself, in line with Nikkei Asia.
Go has not set a timeline for absolutely driverless operations.
“We plan to start driving absolutely autonomously, with no human specialist current, after we validate our expertise and obtain approval to take action,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Within the meantime, Go is on the lookout for methods to offer its conventional enterprise a aggressive edge. As an illustration, the corporate has partnered with Kakao T, Alipay, and WeChat Pay that enables inbound vacationers from South Korea, China, and Taiwan to hail Go-affiliated taxis instantly from their native apps.
Go will not be the one firm betting on Tokyo’s robotaxi future.
In March, Uber, Wayve, and Nissan announced plans to pilot robotaxi providers in Tokyo by late 2026, marking Uber’s first autonomous car partnership in Japan. The service will use Nissan Leaf electrical autos powered by Wayve’s AI Driver, and will probably be bookable by the Uber app.
Uber has additionally teamed up with S.Ride to let worldwide guests e book rides by the Uber app. Didi Mobility Japan, a three way partnership between SoftBank and Didi Chuxing, has the same association.
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