French car firm Renault has bought Karhoo, the taxi metasearch app which went into administration late last year.

The deal has been carried out by Renault’s wholly owned bank RCI, which has bought a majority stake in Flit Technologies, the business which acquired the assets of Karhoo from the administrators.

In a statement, the bank said:

“The acquisition of the start-up Karhoo appeared as a sudden opportunity that we did not want to miss and the acquisition was completed rapidly.”

The price paid is not disclosed, with some reports saying Renault has paid $16 million, others putting the figure at $1 million with a commitment to invest $15 million.

TechCrunch has seen the administrator’s document, which reveals that Karhoo raised $52 million, not the widely-reported sum of $250 million.

Renault is the latest carmaker to get into the taxi app/ride hailing/carsharing sector – General Motors put $500 million into Lyft; Toyota has a stake in Uber and, most recently, Volkswagen launched a new business unit, Moia, to explore opportunities in this sector.

Related reading from Tnooz:
Didi moves into Latin America via stake in Brazil’s 99 (Jan17)
Another $350 million into the ride-hailing sector via Careem (Dec16)