Alexandre Taillefer says he lost everything in Teo Taxi's bankruptcy

CTV Montreal: Teo taxi shuts down Teo Taxi has pulled all of its cars off the road and gone out of business.

The founder of Teo Taxi, Alexandre Taillefer, said Wednesday that with his company going bankrupt he has lost his entire investment.

His investment in the company is estimated at $4 million.

Teo Taxi shut down on Tuesday, putting 450 drivers out of work.

In an open letter published Wednesday, Taillefer said that he hopes that assets of the company can be used by others, including Hydro Quebec.

His letter proposes Hydro Quebec or Investment Quebec acquire the many electric-car charging stations and the software used by Teo Taxi, with other taxi companies purchasing the call centre technology.

He said the 220 electric cars that make up the fleet could still be used by other taxi companies or similar enterprises.

Taillefer is a senior partner at XPND Capital, which was the majority shareholder in Taxelco, and in 2015 founded Teo Taxi. Taxelco also operated Taxi Hochelaga and Taxi Diamond, and those two companies are still in operation.

On Tuesday, Economics Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said that even if Teo Taxi's business model was not viable, its technology division may be attracting interest.

Premier Francois Legault said Tuesday afternoon that Teo Taxi could not count on any more investment from the Quebec government.

In 2015 the Caisse de Depot invested $15 million in XPND Croissance, and about a year ago the Caisse, along with the FTQ investment fund, Fondaction CSN, and XPND spent $17 million on Taxelco.

Various provincial government departments also gave Taxelco $9.5 million in grants, while the previous government gave the company a $4 million loan.

In all outside parties invested $50 to $60 million in Teo Taxi.