Optibus, the software platform for public transportation planning and operations, announced today that it 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, and others.

The future of public transportation

Public transportation is the core of a healthy and equitable society, yet it has remained an unchanged industry, stuck in the past. Optibus, the Israeli startup is changing that; they have put the power of technology into the hands of the transport industry professionals to modernize the field and helped cities around the world bring quality and reliable transportation to their residents.

Optibus is an end-to-end, cloud-native solution for transportation planning, scheduling, rostering, and operations, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and optimization algorithms. Transportation agencies and operators in 1,000 cities worldwide trust Optibus to increase efficiency and service quality, promote transportation equity and passenger experience, reduce emissions and costs, and modernize their operations; they have helped these cities tackle industry challenges by leading the digital transformation of the sector with the combination of innovation and public transportation. They do so by enabling 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 easily 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 crucial data enhances insight into how the network is performing, resulting in better routes that meet passengers’ needs. Not only does their solution serve society for the common good in terms of quality of service, but it also has a positive environmental impact.

Optibus was founded in 2014 by Amos Haggiag (CEO), Eiitan Yanovsky (CTO), and Gady Shlasky. 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.