Optibus Attracts $ 40M Investment To Accelerate Growth Of Its AI-Based Mass Transportation Platform

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

San Francisco, CA and Tel Aviv, Israel /PRNewswire/ -- Optibus, which modernizes mass transit for the world's leading transportation operators with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, announced today the closing of a $ 40 M 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"Every city on the globe runs a multi-million to multi-billion dollar mass transit service, yet the operations rely on outdated software and manual practices to plan, optimize, and run transportation," said Amos Haggiag, Co-founder and CEO of Optibus.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."

Today, 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."

About Optibus:
Optibus helps the world's leading transportation providers better run mass transportation through advanced artificial intelligence and optimization algorithms. Optibus provides a SaaS platform that plans and schedules the movements of every vehicle and driver in a transportation network, with detailed insight into how this affects operations, on-time performance and costs. Optibus has been chosen for more than 300 cities and drives some of the most complex and large-scale transportation operations worldwide, helping improve quality of service and efficiency, reduce costs, streamline operations and reduce congestion and emissions. The company has offices in San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv, and Düsseldorf.

About Insight Venture Partners:
Insight Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight currently has over $20 billion of assets under management and has cumulatively invested in more than 300 companies worldwide. Our mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. Across our people and our portfolio, we encourage a culture around a core belief: growth equals opportunity. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.