Optibus Attracts $ 40M Investment to Accelerate Growth of its AI-Based Mass Transportation Platform

Dec. 12, 2018
Optibus platform leverages AI and advanced algorithms to help more than 300 cities improve mass transportation operations and rider experiences, making mass transit central to the future of mobility.

Optibus announced today the closing of a $ 40 million Series B financing round, led by Insight Venture Partners with a strategic investment by Alibaba Group. The Series B funding will drive future product innovation and support expansion into new and existing markets. Existing investors, including Verizon Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, New Era Capital and Sir Ronald Cohen, also participated in the round.

The Optibus platform is an end-to-end, SaaS offering that powers mass transportation. Optibus creates an operational plan and schedule that orchestrates the movements of every vehicle and driver in a city-wide transportation ecosystem, choosing the best options available to transit operators and agencies, and creating better service for passengers with lower operating costs. Since its Series A funding round in 2017, Optibus has expanded its presence in North America and Europe. The company has also seen its sales grow by 400 percent and its product chosen for more than 300 cities worldwide.

"Every city on the globe runs a multi-million to multi-billion dollar mass transit service, yet the operations rely on outdated software and manual practices to plan, optimize, and run transportation," said Amos Haggiag, co-founder and CEO of Optibus. "This wastes resources and delivers poor passenger service. On the other hand, rapid innovations in urban mobility are pushing transportation providers to modernize, and Optibus creates the technology infrastructure that can ensure better performance from the passenger's point of view."

Optibus drives some of the most complex and large-scale transportation operations worldwide, helping improve quality of service and efficiency, increase service availability and predictability, reduce costs and streamline operations for some of the world's largest transportation providers including Keolis, First Group, Transdev, and RATP Dev.

"Dynamic transportation planning and operation will play a major role in enabling the future of transportation," says Ross Devor, managing director at Insight Venture Partners. "Deploying autonomous or electric vehicles into large fleets or integrating new modes of mobility into existing service are essential tasks that require a unique technology stack. The Optibus platform can handle those complexities at scale, and we're looking forward to working with the Optibus team to leverage the momentum and help bring real innovation to market."