Veezu moves into south coast market with Portsmouth’s Aqua Cars acquisition

Veezu has made another major acquisition with the purchase of Portsmouth-based private hire giant Aqua Cars.

The move is Veezu’s first move on to the South Coast, and represents the biggest deal for the fast-growing group since it bought Sheffield-based City Taxis and Britannia Taxis of Liverpool last year.

The acquisition adds another 600 cars to Veezu’s national fleet, taking its total number up to around 17,000 vehicles across nine major hubs.

Aqua Cars’ head office in Portsmouth will become part of the Veezu Group, alongside its affiliates Bridge Cars in Gosport and Andi Cars in Havant. All the operations will be rebranded as Veezu in the coming months.

Ronnie Leng, co-owner of Aqua Cars, said: “Joining forces with Veezu is a natural next step for us to further support our local community by improving the passenger experience. The implementation of new technologies will ensure a more reliable, safe, and easy service for passengers and will aid more than 600 drivers that we partner with across the region.”

Veezu chief operations officer Arnie Singh said: “We’re so pleased to welcome the whole Aqua team to Veezu. Their reputation for excellence proceeds them and is one we will maintain through the partnership.”

Singh added: “As our first acquisition of 2024, following a number of successful acquisitions last year including Britannia Taxis in Merseyside, it highlights that our growth strategy continues. We’re thrilled to expand further south and develop our strong network of areas across the UK.”

Aqua Cars has been operating across Portsmouth since 1990. Veezu was founded in 2013 and is now the UK’s largest and fastest-growing private hire taxi technology platform. In 2023, more than 16,000 fully licensed Veezu driver-partners carried more than 3 million passengers.