Keolis announces its strategic partnership with Masabi

London and Boston, October 15th, 2015 – Masabi, the global leader in mobile ticketing and innovative fare collection for transportation, today announced a $12 million funding round with investment from leading international public transport operator Keolis, Lepe Partners, MasterCard, and existing investor MMC Ventures. Bryan, Garnier & Co acted as Financial Advisor to Keolis.
Founded in 2001, Masabi is the leading provider of transit mobile ticketing & payments. Headquartered in London with an additional office in New York, Masabi currently employs over 180 people and works with more than 22 transport operators and agencies around the world, including Virgin Trains, Abellio, Thames Clippers, New Orleans RTA, Boston’s MBTA, Las Vegas, Transport for Athens, and New York’s MTA. Masabi’s announcement builds on strategic partnerships with MasterCard and Keolis. Keolis is working to include Masabi’s mobile ticketing into its integrated digital offering, dedicated to delivering a new passenger experience.
“Our mission is to transform everyday transport for millions of people in cities worldwide. The combination of Masabi, MasterCard and Keolis represent three companies working at the forefront of their respective fields to develop and deploy products, making this a reality,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “We are delighted to welcome their investment together with that from Lepe Partners and MMC Ventures to support our operations around the world where mobile ticketing is enhancing the quality of life of urban residents and visitors and bringing about smarter, better-connected cities.”
Masabi’s technology revolutionizes the customer experience across all modes of transport, freeing passengers from waiting in line for a ticket or scrambling for cash when paying for their fare. For cities and transport operators, it significantly reduces the cost of fare collection, removing the need for costly hardware and ticket media. At the same time, integrated big-data analysis and visualization tools present agency activity via a user-friendly graphical interface, allowing them to better plan, manage and optimize their services.
“As a leading public transport operator, one of our key priorities is to improve our passengers’ travel experience, using mobile technology to make journeys seamless,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, Executive Chairman of the Keolis Group. “Through our partnership with Masabi, our PlanBookTicket solution will go up to the next level by integrating Masabi’s ticket technology. The combination of our experts will give us a step ahead of both in France and around the world.”
Alexandre Boukhari, Director at Bryan Garnier, said: “This new operation carried out by Bryan, Garnier & Co highlights our in-depth knowledge of Smart City solutions providers in Europe and our ability to find the best technological partner for Keolis.”
About Masabi
Masabi is the global leader in mobile ticketing and fare collection for transportation. Masabi delivers transport ticketing solutions that delight customers and reduce the cost for agencies and operators. Masabi’s JustRide is a scalable mobile ticketing and fare management platform, which allows agencies to upgrade or replace their legacy ticketing systems at a fraction of the cost of traditional options and a minimum risk for its agency partners. Masabi is backed by Fontinalis Partners, Lepe Partners, m8 Capital, MasterCard, MMC Ventures and Keolis.
(www.masabi.com)
About Keolis
Keolis is one of Europe’s leading public transport operators, established in 15 countries on four continents. The group offers a full range of transport solutions to meet the needs of local authorities and passengers and constantly strives to offer its clients mobility choices in tune with the priorities of each geographical region.
(www.keolis.com)