Shell invests in Masabi to help make public transport easier to choose and use

Masabi has finalized an investment from Shell, which will help support the global expansion of Masabi’s Justride Platform.

The Justride Platform is a ticketing technology and enables Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) for public transport operators and authorities.

Shell’s investment is an extension to Masabi’s recent $20 million growth funding round led by Smedvig Capital with MMC Ventures and other existing investors. With over 70 clients across 13 countries, Masabi’s integration with transport leaders, including Uber, Transit, Jorudan and Kisio Digital, is making it easier for people to choose and use public transport services through mass consumer apps, helping place public transport at the center of the global MaaS movement, according to the company.

“While hybrid and zero-emission projects have proven that the potential for reducing costs and cutting emissions is substantial, we also see the need to take vehicles off the road by transitioning drivers to become riders,” said Roger Hunter, vice president of E-Mobility at Shell. “But for this to happen, there needs to be a revolution in how people make and take journeys in and around cities; public transport has to modernize and become easier and simpler to choose and use. Through our partnership with Masabi, we find ourselves at the forefront of an emerging technology that is already delivering a tangible and positive impact on how people move around towns and cities across the world.”

The company says it currently processes more than $1 billion in annual transport ticketing sales and continues to add features and functionality to the Justride platform. Its latest capability removes the need for passengers to buy a ticket before traveling, allowing them to simply tap a contactless bank card, mobile phone or smartcard to ride. This adaptability allows the company to bring new ways of running ticketing services to cities of all sizes. Instead of bespoke fare collection systems which are slow to deploy, expensive, often in place for decades and do not easily update with new features and functionality, cities can move to a Fare Payments-as-a-Service model using a platform which is quick to deploy, reduces costs and is constantly updating with new features available for everyone to use. This new way of delivering ticketing services helps cities keep up with the pace of technology change, while allowing more money to be put back into running transport services.

“As mobile ticketing has evolved, so has the scope of our work. We have expanded our focus beyond just enabling the purchase of tickets to offering passengers convenient solutions for discovering transit options and driving uptake of public systems to reduce congestion,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO at Masabi. “Today, we are working alongside industry leaders in the mobility space to drive the broad deployment of mobile ticketing and fare payment systems around the world. We are delighted to welcome Shell as a strategic partner and look forward to working with them to improve the accessibility, discoverability and usability of public transport services globally.”