WhereIsMyTransport, a South African mobility startup, has successfully closed the second funding round for capital to expand its already impressive portfolio of mobility data and solutions for emerging market megacities.
The funding round was led by Naspers Foundry, Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund and Japan’s SBI Investment. This investment comes a year after the company raised a $7.5 million Series A round from investors including Google and Toyota Tsusho. This brings the total raised by the company during its Series A funding to $22 million.
Launched in Cape Town in 2015, the mobility tech startup enables people understand mobility in emerging market megacities. WhereIsMyTransport maps formal and informal public transport networks and uses this data and technology to improve the public transport experience .This makes the public commutes more reliable, predictable, safe and accessible for individuals residing in high populated cities.
WhereIsMyTransport aims to develop mobility solutions that are tailored to commuters in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America with real-time public transport network alerts. The tech startup leverages technology to improve commuters’ public transport. .
The collected mobility datasets are licensed to governments, development finance institutions, NGOs, operators and third-party solution developers to be used towards research, analytics, insights, and enterprise solutions.
The startup’s products are used by cities to coordinate and monitor services, operators to integrate their systems, and passengers, who access the platform through apps and endpoints connected to the WhereIsMyTransport platform.
In South Africa, WhereIsMyTransport clientele includes the Gautrain in Johannesburg. WhereIsMyTransport has been used to enrich Google Maps in Mexico and has helped the World Bank examine access to job opportunities via public transport in 12 African cities.
WhereIsMyTransport has launched its first consumer product Rumbo in Latin America. Rumbo is the first to provide network information from all modes of transport in this market and has over 100 000 users and delivered over 750,000 real-time network alerts since its launch in Mexico City in November 2020.
With the new investment, WhereIsMyTransport plans to continue its expansion across emerging markets with a launch in Peru planned for later this year.