Israel-based transport management technology developer Optibus has completed a $40m series B round backed by e-commerce group Alibaba and Verizon Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications firm Verizon.
Venture capital and private equity firm Insight Venture Partners led the round, with capital also coming from Pitango Venture Capital, New Era and private investor Ronald Cohen.
Founded in 2014, Optibus has built a cloud-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to help public transport companies plan, schedule and organise its vehicles and drivers.
The company claims its sales have grown by 400% since its November 2017 series A round, and the product is live in more than 300 cities worldwide. It will use the new capital to further develop the platform, and to expand in new and existing markets.
Pitango Venture Capital led the company’s $12m series A round, which included Verizon Ventures and Ronald Cohen, bringing its total funding to $14.5m.
Amos Haggiag, co-founder and chief executive of Optibus, said: “Every city on the globe runs a multimillion to multibillion-dollar mass transit service, yet the operations rely on outdated software and manual practices to plan, optimise and run transportation.
“This wastes resources and delivers poor passenger service. On the other hand, rapid innovations in urban mobility are pushing transportation providers to modernise, and Optibus creates the technology infrastructure that can ensure better performance from the passenger’s point of view.”