Brazilian based taxi application company, Easy Taxi, today announced a $10 million round of funding, which will be used to finance its expansion to growing markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The app company, which is backed by the Samwer Brothers’ Rocket Internet, revealed it will begin its expansion in Africa with Nigeria, emphasizing the firm’s desire to replicate its Latin American success in emerging markets across other continents.

“We want to bring this success to other attractive markets and we see high potential in many Asian and African countries,” said Dennis Wang, head of international expansion of Easy Taxi.

“Today, Easy Taxi starts in Lagos, Nigeria, a metropolitan area with 20 million inhabitants and huge potential. In the same way, we will launch Easy Taxi in more African countries in the upcoming weeks,” Sacha Poignonnec, co-CEO of the African Internet Holding (AIH) – provider of the round funding – added in an official statement.

Poignonnec explained that there was a huge need for such taxi services in Nigeria, especially during the rainy season, as finding a cab could prove a painful experience.

The app, which would be available for free to consumers who are iOS and Android users, would provide drivers with devices that will be preloaded with the app so that they can get taxi calls and respond back within a short period, reducing the communication challenges between taxi drivers and commuters.

The taxi app is however not free for drivers; a fee of about 5 percent of their fares would be charged and they would be required to sign up for subscriptions with Easy Taxi.

Easy Taxi, which was launched in 2011 in Brazil, already has more than 45,000 taxi drivers on its network, with over 1.5 million downloads so far recorded in its active markets.