Optibus becomes first public transport unicorn thanks to a new $100 million funding

Optibus has closed $100 million in Series D funding, with investments from new and existing investors Insight Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Verizon Ventures, Pitango First & Pitango Growth, Tencent, SOMV Momentum, BlueRed Partners and others. This latest round of financing brings Optibus’ total funding to $260 million and its valuation to $1.3 billion, making Optibus the first unicorn dedicated to the public transportation sector.

Optibus has a cooperation in force with Enel X and has been adopted so far in 1,000 cities worldwide and has recently announced the acquisition of Trillium, a SaaS provider that helps transportation operators and agencies keep passengers informed.

Optibus launches Ridership Insights

Optibus closes the round as “it launches Ridership Insights and will use the funding to advance its vision of a holistic software platform for all public transportation planning and operations needs, expand into new product and service offerings including real-time operations and electric vehicle management, and strengthen its global presence in existing and new markets”, Optibus says.

With the launch of Ridership Insights, Optibus enables the visualization and analysis of ridership data directly on the map during the network planning phase, giving planners deeper insight into how the city moves. Planners can view their ridership KPIs on a route, segment, or stop level, with boarding and alighting data for each stop, or filter by time and date range. This data enhances insight into how the network is performing, resulting in better routes that meet passengers’ needs.

Optibus, the first unicorn in public transport

“Optibus combines innovation and public transportation expertise like no one else in the industry. Their software is revolutionizing our business and day-to-day operations, as well as the passenger experience. Optibus is the future of public transportation and we celebrate this fantastic milestone with them,” said Carla Stockton-Jones, UK Managing Director at Stagecoach Group, the largest public transport operator in the UK, with an estimated 2.5 million passenger trips each day.

“Optibus is proud to be the first unicorn dedicated to public transportation, which is at the core of a healthy and equitable society. By putting powerful technology in the hands of industry professionals, Optibus helps to increase transportation equity and ridership while reducing emissions and costs. Our investors and employees see the double promise of Optibus to generate both social good and ROI, and we are thrilled to lead the industry’s digital transformation,” said Optibus CEO and co-founder Amos Haggiag. 

“Optibus has modernized the industry and helped cities around the world bring quality and reliable transportation to their residents. As long-time investors in the company, we’re excited to continue our partnership with Amos and the team,” said Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We look forward to working with Optibus as they continue to grow and scale up.”

“For SOMV Momentum, Optibus represents everything that is great in tech; digitizing and disrupting the basic functions of society in a way that serves the common good, both in quality of service and environmental impact, whilst also being an island of solid growth, which is of prime importance for us in current market conditions,” said Merav Rotem Naaman, General Partner at SOMV Momentum. “We are very proud to be continuing this journey with Amos and his amazing team.”