Masabi (company)
Masabi Ltd. is a London based technology company that develops and markets fare collection services for public transport companies. The company offers mobile apps, smart cards, and other fare media for electronic ticket and fare collection, allowing users to buy tickets by app, on the web, at kiosks, and retail locations, and allowing tickets to be read by an electronic reader or scanned by a rail conductor by mobile phone. The company's customers include public transit authorities in Calgary, Boston, London, Athens, Rome,[1] Madrid,[2] Adelaide,[3] New York,[4] Las Vegas,[5][6] Los Angeles,[7] Denver,[8] Ohio[9] and Japan.[10]
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Technology |
Founded | 2001 |
Headquarters | , UK |
Products | fare collection services for public transport companies |
Website | masabi |
In 2012, the company launched the first ticketless rail system in the United States, for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.[11] In another 'first', in January 2019 Uber announced that its "transit offering" had gone live in Denver with RTD, with in-app ticketing provided by Masabi using its Justride SDK.[12]
In April 2019, the company reported that it is on track to exceed $1 billion in annual ticketing sales in the next year.[13] It is currently located in offices in Tech City, London and in New York and Boston in the USA.
In 2020, Masabi's Justride SDK was recognized as Ticketing Technology of the Year at the Transport Ticketing Global Awards 2020.[14]
Funding
The company was founded in 2001 and raised seed funding of $2.8 million in 2013.[15] In December 2015, the company raised $12 million in venture capital from an investor group including the public transport operator Keolis, MasterCard, Lepe Partners and existing investor MMC Ventures.[6][16] A further $20 million was raised in April 2019, led by Smedvig Capital, with participation from MMC Ventures and other investors.[13]
References
- Travel Daily News: "Masabi launches in Rome with tour bus operator Prestige bringing mobile ticketing to the Italian market", 29 March 2019
- Metro Report: "Mobile ticketing is coming to Madrid", 13 November 2018
- RailwayPro: "Adelaide Metro to trial Australia’s first mobile ticketing", 15 November 2017
- Mass Transit: "Masabi to Launch Mobile Ticketing with New York’s MTA" 1 May 2014
- "Mastercard-backed mobile ticketing app raises $12M". CNBC. 7 December 2015.
- "Masabi raises $12m to destroy the paper ticket". Daily Telegraph. 6 December 2015.
- "Los Angeles' Metrolink selects UK's Masabi for mobile ticketing system". Railway Technology.
- Intelligent Transport: "Denver set to be the first to integrate public transport services in Uber app", 1 February 2019
- Metro Magazine: "NEORide and Masabi launch fully integrated mobile ticketing app in Ohio", 27 June 2019
- Metro Report: "Masabi to bring mobile ticketing to Japan", 17 January 2019
- "Masabi Launches U.S.'s First Ticketless Rail System". Wall Street Journal. 23 April 2012.
- TechCrunch: "Uber's transit offering just went live in Denver", 31 January 2019
- Venturebeat: "Masabi raises $20 million for mobile ticketing tools", 30 April 2019
- "2020 Awards Winners". Transport Ticketing Global 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
- "Mobile Ticketing Solution Masabi Raises $2.8M To Help Transit Agencies Move To The Cloud, Opens New York Office". TechCrunch. 20 March 2013.
- "Keolis takes share in Masabi". Railway Gazette International. 10 December 2015.