Pioneering a Mobility-Intelligence-as-a-Service solution, CitySwift is on a mission to give public transport operators more resilience, whilst also helping the sector become greener. The Irish startup has just raised €5 million and is set for global expansion.
Public transport is a critical part of any modern city. It helps city dwellers get from A to B, connecting commuters, friends and families to the places they need to get to. It’s an industry that is fundamental in how a city develops for the future and has massive implications for the carbon footprint of a metropolitan hub.
However, it’s a sector that is confronted with different challenges – from fuel hikes, driver shortages, and funding problems to meeting carbon goals and avoiding congestion. It’s a sector that needs some tech to help build resilience, and help operations run more efficiently. And that is what CitySwift aims to achieve. The Irish startup has now just picked up €5 million to bring its Mobility-Intelligence-as-a-Service to global markets.
Funding details
The Series A funding round of €5 million was led by Act Venture Capital, with all existing investors following including Declan Ryan’s Irelandia Investments, Mike McGearty, former CEO of CarTrawler, Enterprise Ireland and the Western Development Commission getting involved.
It brings the Galway-based team’s total funding to date to €8.5 million since its conception in 2016.
It’ll be used to fast-track expansion plans and fuel the company’s goal to help the public transport industry build resilience against ongoing issues like fuel hikes, driver shortages, funding uncertainty, and Covid-19 recovery. Having already secured partnerships with the likes of National Express, Go Ahead Group and Transport for Wales in the UK, and the MTA in New York, CitySwift is taking its technology global.
Brian O’Rourke, CitySwift Co-Founder and CEO commented: “This new era of CitySwift is one where we are focused on preparing our partners for a greener, cleaner future of mobility, by matching supply and demand across their networks now. CitySwift strongly believes the future is bright for public transport, and Mobility Intelligence is the key that will unlock attractive, efficient, and green public transport across cities globally.”
Mobility-Intelligence-as-a-Service platform
Founded by Alan Farrelly and Brian O’Rourke, CitySwift is a big data startup that is powering bus networks across the globe – making public transport more efficient and greener with a new approach, through Mobility-Intelligence-as-a-Service.
The platform gives bus networks precise insights so that they can quickly adapt and operate their networks for efficiency, profitability, and growth.
Brain O’Rourke explained: “Over the past decade, we have seen a significant shift in the way the world moves due to compounding crises such as climate change and the Covid19 pandemic. Cities worldwide have become more congested, travel patterns have changed, the cost of living has increased and sustainability is now a key issue of the political agenda. These shifts have presented us with an exciting opportunity. The public transport industry must rethink its traditional ways of operating and shift its focus from supply to demand in order to optimize networks for the future – and data is what will unlock these efficient and optimized networks. Private operators and public authorities require data-enriched insights to inform them on how to best adapt and operate their networks to provide more efficient, reliable and sustainable services.”
Alongside this new funding, the Galway-based innovators have also revealed new product announcements, further enabling them to blend the power of data and public transport together to prepare transport networks everywhere for the future of mobility.
The new suite of products includes CitySwift’s Evolve module that delivers scenario planning for AI-powered bus timetabling, and movement pattern simulation for accurately matching frequency with demand resulting in over 5x ROI, a 45% reduction in late buses and over 2% reduction in operating hours with existing clients – also equating to significant emission reductions, cost savings and increases in passenger demand in cities.
Additionally, CitySwift recently released the Discover offering, which is a range of dashboards catered to different pain points across transport organizations. These dashboards, which are already driving a massive spike in usage across CitySwift’s existing client base, include driver performance for punctuality insights and driver retention, and demand forecasting for understanding how service changes will impact passenger demand and revenue.
These new and upgraded products will help CitySwift to realise its vision of reducing global emissions from transport, supporting public transport networks to attract more people to choose public transportation over private car use.
