Barely a week after JUMO, the South African fintech startup secured a whopping $55 million funding, led by Goldman Sachs, South African mobility startup WhereIsMyTransport has raised a US$7.5 million funding round from investors including Google, Nedbank and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) for further global expansion.
‘‘ Starting over is never easy. Especially when you’ve devoted years of your life to the work you’ve just scrapped. But that’s just what the WhereIsMyTransport team (then 14 people) resolved to do one day as we sat in the grass in front of the garage, which, as cliché as it sounds, was our home for the past five years,’’ WhereIsMyTransport CEO Devin de Vries noted many years ago before the latest funding.
Here Is The Deal
- This round of investment was led by Liil Ventures, Google, Nedbank and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), with previous investors Global Innovation Fund and Goodwell Investments also participating.
- The startup secured two funding rounds back in 2017 and a further US$1.85 million early last year.
- WhereIsMyTransport will use the funding to extend its global reach, scale its data collection practice, and develop new technology to translate complex data into useful information for commuters.
“We make the invisible visible, by collecting all kinds of data related to public transport and turning the data into information that can be shared with the people who need it most. In emerging markets, the mobility ecosystem is complex; informal public transport doesn’t behave like formal public transport,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Devin de Vries.
“Data and technology solutions that work well in London or San Francisco wouldn’t make anything like the same impact, if any at all, in the cities where we work. Our solutions are designed specifically to overcome these contextual challenges.”
Why The Investors Invested
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest in WhereIsMyTransport’s Series A funding,” says Mr. Masato Yamanami, Automotive Division’s CEO of Toyota Tsusho Corporation. ”Our division’s global network, that covers 146 countries, is primarily focused on new emerging countries where people rely on informal public transport. Through strategic collaboration with WhereIsMyTransport, we will develop better and more efficient mobility services that help to resolve social challenges and contribute to the overall economic development of nations, primarily emerging nations.”
According to Janade Du Plessis, Head of Alternative Investments and Venture Capital at Nedbank:
“Nedbank CIB is at the forefront of investing in disruptive technologies that are able to make a meaningful difference to people’s lives – including smart city initiatives that leverages Nedbank’s strategy of financing our infrastructure, transport and logistics clients. WhereIsMyTransport is a leading provider of sustainable transit solutions in complex urban environments. Our investment will support the company’s expansion into key African regions, and we will use our network and our influence on the continent to unlock new corporate partnerships.“
According to Alix Peterson Zwane, Chief Executive Officer, Global Innovation Fund:
“Informal and often unreliable mass transit is a significant problem that disproportionately affects poor people. We are excited to continue to work with WhereIsMyTransport to make mass transportation in emerging cities more accessible and more efficient. The company has expanded to new geographies since GIF’s initial investment, and we look forward to growing our partnership, and continuing to improve lives and create opportunities for people throughout the developing world.”
Read also: South African Fintech Startup JUMO Raises $55 mn In Latest Funding Round
A Look At What WhereIsMyTransport Does
Formed in 2016, WhereIsMyTransport is a big data platform for sustainable mobility in emerging markets, which connects and collects data and integrates this information on its open data platform.
Its 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.
‘‘We’re mapping the emerging world’s public transport networks, to become the de facto source of this information; and we’re supporting communities with the data — and with the right user experience — to make formal and informal public transport more reliable, predictable, safe, inclusive, and accessible,’’ CEO Devin de Vries notes.
WhereIsMyTransport launched operations in Africa but has since expanded to India, Southeast Asia and Latin America in 2018.
For a startup that had previously pivoted, the latest round of funding is a major feat.
‘‘We had to start over because our idea wasn’t about one city of millions, but many cities of billions,’’ Devin noted in a Linkedin post, far back in 2016. ‘‘An idea that started in 2008 as a university project had brought my co-founder and I to the world finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup, to Silicon Valley, and then back to Cape Town. Once the dust and press had cleared, we had gone to work turning a competition entry into a company.
Over the years we dived-deep into our industry, learning from the many stakeholders that make up the transport ecosystem, and we pivoted. Each time we created a product for a single group, it failed to address the underlying problem we were trying to solve: getting transport information to the right people, when and where they needed it.
By that day in the grass, we knew the only way to truly solve that problem was to make something that all those groups could use. A platform that united the entire transport ecosystem. It would need to be much bigger and more robust than anything we had ever created. We would need a much bigger team to do it, and we’d have to leave our garage.’’
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com