The failed taxi-booking app Karhoo, a London-based startup that once planned to be in 400 cities by the end of 2020, has filed for bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Karhoo app, which let customers to compare cab fares on smartphones before booking a ride, faces a collection lawsuit in New York and risks losing some of its more than 700 contracts with taxi fleet owners and dispatchers. Karhoo officials who found a buyer for the company’s blueprints are asking a U.S. bankruptcy judge to halt lawsuit and protect the contracts until the deal is completed. Founded in November 2014 by entrepreneur Daniel Ishag, Karhoo ran out of money after expanding from London to nine other English cities, Paris and Singapore. Karhoo’s board decided on Nov. 7 to pull the plug on operations, laying off its roughly 200 workers who are still waiting to collect nearly $1.9 million in wages, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
