eCabs Technologies: Empowering legacy taxi operators to embrace ride-hailing tech

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eCabs Technologies: Empowering legacy taxi operators to embrace ride-hailing tech

Location:

Malta

Employees:

400+

Industry:

Transportation

Customers:

Millions

The Challenge

eCabs, seeing the rise in demand for app-based ride-hailing in Europe, started developing their proprietary technology to expand globally. For that, they needed to scale up their in-house team rapidly to secure growth goals.

The Solution

SENLA provided expert Java engineers to help develop eCabs' ride-hailing platform. Our work includes improving the app's performance, optimizing microservices for better speed, and using Google tools to ease development.

The Value

In 2022, eCabs increased customer journeys by 50% compared to 2019. In 2023, they launched in Athens and Bucharest, and plan further expansion in 2024. SENLA helped make eCabs' platform fast, reliable, and scalable, enhancing the customer experience.

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Meet our Client

eCabs is Malta's only home-grown ride-hailing solution.

With more than 14 years of experience on the densest road network in Europe, it’s now exporting its tech and know-how beyond Malta’s shores.

Today, eCabs offers a white-label IP-owned tech platform for launching taxi brands internationally.

The opportunity to grow

As per Statista, revenue in the ride-hailing market in Europe is projected to reach $19.33 billion in 2024 with an annual growth rate of 3.64%.
Over 160 million users in this region already favor app-based services over traditional taxis.

In 2019, seeing the opportunity, eCabs enthusiastically started building its proprietary mobility technology with plans to go international in a few years.

From the start, eCabs was firmly set on growing through technology.

They aimed to invest heavily to expand their in-house team and bring in best-in-class international tech talent to achieve their ambitious goals.

“We believe that the dedication and strong sense of belonging of our multi-cultural team is essential for business success both in Malta and internationally, and we made it a business goal to build such a team.”

eCabs

The international talent

In 2021, SENLA became one of eCabs’ multicultural partners.

Eager to collaborate with leading international talent, eCabs found a meaningful partner in SENLA.

Our competitive and smart cost optimization was another plus, as post-COVID reality and the highly competitive ride-hailing market demanded that eCabs fine-tune their operations without compromising quality.

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The solution

SENLA’s experts augmented the team developing eCabs' ride-hailing technology.

Our Java engineers work together with in-house front-end and mobile developers, testers, and product managers.

"eCabs is a developer's paradise for those who love lots of modern technologies and the chance for quick skill upgrades. The project is moving forward very fast and we're always improving technically to keep up with the new demands."

Yauhen Bardouski, SENLA’s Senior Software Engineer

Technical performance: enhancing tech health

As members of the technical roadmap team, our specialists are responsible for maintaining the tech health of the application. By analyzing the app and doing research, they delve into issues and suggest improvements for the implementation team. 

Currently, developers focus on performance-related improvements.

For example, they’re enhancing the technical capability of the map to calculate routes. This will help increase the overall number of trips and reach the Client’s annual target for 2024.

Microservices: ensuring scalability and stability

eCabs’platform uses a microservices architecture.

Some older modules still lack the level of scalability required for a platform of this size to operate under high load. We work on optimization and improvements to ensure scalability and stability.

To power the microservices, the team relies on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with custom modifications for rules and rerouting requests.

For example, if a service goes down due to load, the system needs to prevent disruption of service. It will quickly replicate instances so that customers can continue interacting with the platform.

Quarkus: providing the necessary speed

Some core parts of the platform are common across all jurisdictions where it operates and are serviced by shared microservices.

A notable feature of this central part is the use of the Quarkus framework for Java.

Its ability to quickly start applications in case of a crash and efficiently handle sudden loads made it a natural choice.

Relaunching a service on Quarkus takes an average of just 3 seconds, while on Spring it would take 10 times as long.

Quarkus is reactive and allows for parallel processing of requests, saving development time and reducing system downtime.

The team is currently updating Quarkus to its latest version, staying true to the Client’s strategy of using only cutting-edge software.

Google services: facilitating the engineering process

eCabs entered into a strategic partnership with Google in 2023, which resulted in migrating to Google Cloud and adopting a variety of Google tools.

The engineers set up integrations and transitioned the systems to Google services, such as Cloud Storage for storage, downloading, and transferring files, Secret Manager for keeping passwords and certificates, and Pub/Sub for communication between microservices.

Now, the team uses almost all Google Cloud technologies to facilitate the engineering process and save development time.

The value: Two new markets in one year and many more to come

“We brought the pre-pandemic consumer app experience up to the highest degree with multiple improvements in terms of usability, automation, system robustness, and features, enabling our platform to be more competitive. Most of our new tech made our system more robust and scalable. We are now ready for the growth that our platform is about to experience over the next months.”

eCabs

Over the past decade, eCabs has grown and evolved to become a leading ride-hailing tech provider. 

  • In 2022, our Client managed to make 50% more customer journeys compared to the same period in 2019, which was their best-performing year to date. 
  • In 2023, eCabs successfully partnered with tenants in Athens, Greece and Bucharest, Romania to launch two new ride-hailing platforms. 
  • In 2024, they have plans to expand into several other jurisdictions. All the while eCabs is helping both established companies and new players in the transportation market use ride-hailing technology to succeed in this competitive field.

SENLA is excited to support them in all their ambitious endeavors. The benefits of our partnership our Client enjoys:

  • Performance improvements directly translate to faster, more reliable service for the eCabs’ customers.
  • Optimized microservices ensure a scalable, stable, and adaptable platform, offering customers a smooth experience.
  • The Quarkus framework provides rapid response to service disruptions, minimizing downtime and ensuring consistent, reliable access.
  • The Google Cloud technologies streamline development, leading to quicker, more secure enhancements for an improved customer experience.

Growing through technology is indeed the most viable strategy today. Let’s have a chat about what SENLA can do for you.

Why Senla?

Approved by Fortune 500s

Everything written above helped us get recognition and referrals from the highest-tier businesses among which are Sanofi, BoschAbbott, and Bayer.

Fast onboarding

Our teams are ready for action after only 5-14 business days of onboarding which is far less than with any, even the most optimistic, in-house hiring scenarios.

High commitment

SENLA's software developers are your full-time employees, as dedicated to your success as your in-house team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What distinguishes SENLA from other outsourcing companies?

Our Codex — the principles behind everything SENLA does:
Our purpose: Make the world better through effective software development. 
Our means: Make money for us and our Clients. 
Our foundation: Taking care of our specialists.
Our aspiration: Deliver on time.

We have legacy software that needs an update but I don’t want to shut down my business. Can you help?

Yes, we work with all kinds of systems including legacy ones. If you need to modernize your software, we will introduce the changes gradually to make sure your business flows uninterrupted.

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