Over 2,500 transit agency professionals across the globe use the Swiftly platform to create and manage more efficient and coordinated public transportation

SAN FRANCISCO, JUNE 7, 2019— Swiftly, a cloud-based platform transforming the way cities understand, manage, and optimize their mobility networks, today announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by mobility and impact experts Via ID, Aster Capital, Renewal Funds, and Wind Capital. Fabio Lancellotti, Partner at Aster Capital, along with experienced entrepreneur and investor John Rodkin, have joined Swiftly's Board of Directors. This new investment will enable the company to work on new and innovative ways to make public transportation more efficient, reliable, and seamless including exploring ways to connect public transportation to new forms of mobility within cities.

Swiftly has created the first platform specifically designed for transportation data and operations. With Swiftly, transit professionals can easily manage the efficiency of their transit systems in new ways, finding the exact points in their schedules and routes dragging down operational efficiency and service reliability. And unlike legacy transit software, Swiftly is quick, easy to understand, and focused on rider impact. Further, the platform includes a suite of APIs that enable public transportation networks to connect and integrate with infrastructure and other forms of transportation.

Today, transit agencies and cities are generating enormous amounts of data that hold the key to understanding the transportation bottlenecks within our cities. Yet it’s typically too difficult and time-consuming to make sense of, often left inaccessible and unanalyzed. Armed with proper insights, agencies can get to the heart of what’s blocking fast, reliable transit service in their communities.

“Our growth gives us a tremendously strong foundation for doubling down on our mobility operating system. We’re going to keep working on new and innovative ways to make public transportation more efficient, reliable, and seamless” said Jonny Simkin, Swiftly Co-Founder and CEO. “It’s our vision to start exploring ways to connect public transportation to all forms of mobility within cities. Connecting and coordinating disparate travel modes is a critical next step to ultimately make cities move efficiently.”

“We’re committed to helping bring innovation to transportation,” said Gary Miskell, Chief Information Officer at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in San Jose, CA. “Swiftly is one of our early innovation partners who has the same vision as VTA to give riders greater and more accurate transportation options for their travel needs. With Swiftly’s innovative product development, VTA has been able to improve our real time information accuracy and provide cutting edge data to our planning and operations staff thus improving our transit system performance.”

“Swiftly is rapidly improving the public transit rider experience in cities and Renewal Funds is thrilled to be partnered with such a mission-aligned team,” said Paul Richardson, Co-Founding and Managing Partner at Renewal Funds. “We believe improving the reliability of public transit is crucial to increasing transit ridership, reducing private vehicle use, and building sustainable and equitable cities. We have been invested in the intelligent transportation space for nearly a decade and think that Swiftly stands out in terms of the environmental and social change they can drive through the transformation of urban mobility.”  

“Public transportation is often perceived as unreliable, lacking real-time information, and generally providing a poor experience for riders,” said Fabio Lancellotti, Partner at Aster. “We believe Swiftly will provide agencies with the solutions they need to replicate the type of experience we see in Europe and in the US’s great transit cities. Swiftly’s tremendous 300% year-over-year growth gives us confidence on the great execution capabilities of the funding team as well as the conviction of a compelling offer.” 

“As one of the main mobility investors, we know a game-changing team when we see one,” Said Xavier Gury, International Investment Manager at Via ID. “Working with Swiftly over the past two years, we have been incredibly impressed by the product, strategy and team momentum. This is a huge, untapped market waiting to be disrupted and we are excited to partner with Swiftly as they embark on their mission to make transportation more efficient and modern.”

The Series A financing comes at a time with  significant momentum for Swiftly. The company has seen 300% year-over-year growth, tripled its headcount in the past 12 months and now works with over 50 city transportation networks around the world, including MBTA in Boston, Capital Metro in Austin, VIA in San Antonio, VTA in San Jose, and MDOT MTA in Baltimore, supporting over 2,500 transit agency professionals and impacting over a billion passengers per year. Swiftly has helped customers improve arrival predictions by up to 30% and complete planning projects up to 90% faster, resulting in increased ridership, fewer passenger complaints, and more efficient transit operations.

About Swiftly

Swiftly is a mobility operating system that empowers cities to provide more efficient, reliable, and seamless transportation. The platform weaves data analytics, intuitive visualizations, and real-time predictive technologies into applications that drive smarter decisions for agencies. Over 50 cities and 2,500 transit professionals use Swiftly to improve transportation for over 1.2 billion passenger trips per year. Swiftly is based in San Francisco, California.

About Via ID

Via ID is a business accelerator that supports in the long-term projects related to new modes of mobility: daily, smart, sustainable. Via ID offers a complete ecosystem for the entrepreneurs that choose to join it, providing incubation, financial support, expert advice and strong synergies with leading providers of mobility solutions. Today, Via ID has a portfolio of about twenty startups (including Drivy, Heetch, Smoove, Swiftly, Xee, etc.), offices in Paris, Lille but also in San Francisco, Singapore, Berlin and as well as an incubator in Paris. Via ID has a It is also part of Mobivia, European leader for automobile services and new mobility solutions (Norauto, Midas, ATU etc.).

About Aster

Aster is a Venture Capital firm with offices in 4 major innovation hubs: Paris, Cambridge (UK), Tel Aviv and San Francisco. Since 2000, Aster has partnered with more than 60 teams of entrepreneurs that are transforming markets with disruptive offers and technologies.

Renewal Funds

Renewal Funds is a Vancouver based mission venture capital firm investing in early growth stage companies in Canada and the United States, adding value for entrepreneurs through capital, networks, and expertise. Renewal funds delivers above market returns for our partners while catalyzing positive social and environmental change.