Eddie Ybanez, co-founder and CEO at Micab, is leaving the top job at the Philippine taxi-hailing app. He will be replaced by former chief technology officer Kenneth Baylosis following a decision by the startup’s senior leadership team, Ybanez announced in a LinkedIn post.
He confirmed to Tech in Asia that he will no longer be involved in Micab operationally, though he remains a shareholder in the company. He added that he’ll be looking for new opportunities in “on-demand and industry-enabling technology,” as well as devoting more time to Payruler, an HR software startup he co-founded five years ago.
Photo credit: Micab
“When I first started Micab way back in 2012, I could not have possibly imagined that we would have come this far. But we still have so far to go,” Ybanez said in the post.
“That is why the senior leadership team has collectively decided to turn over Micab’s reins to my co-founder and long-standing CTO, Kenneth Baylosis. As Micab’s new CEO, Kenneth will bring a renewed sense of purpose and vision to the role that will carry the company into the next stage of its evolution.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Baylosis left Micab in December last year, with the Nikkei Asian Review reporting that Ybanez took over as acting CTO. Baylosis currently serves as CEO at messaging app Gomigu and software startup Zoog.
Micab has partnered with taxi operators across several cities in the Philippines, allowing users to hail licensed cabs on demand.
While focused on the licensed taxi segment, Micab competes with platforms that also connect private-hire drivers with passengers, including Grab.
Ybanez hit the headlines in July last year after he publicly claimed that Grab had hit Micab with “several thousand” fake bookings.
However, Grab later said that an internal investigation had found Ybanez’s allegations to be “untrue” and that they appeared “to have malicious intent.”
In an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review earlier this year, Ybanez said that Micab was in the midst of a fundraising round that would add to the US$2 million it had raised to date and enable the startup to expand beyond the Philippines.
Micab didn’t respond to Tech in Asia‘s request for further details on Ybanez’s departure from the CEO role and Baylosis’ return to the company.
Editing by Judith Balea
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