Masabi and Chalo Partner to Target $66.5B Indian Public Transport Market with Combined Mobile Ticketing and Information Offering

Masabi and Chalo (previously Zophop) have announced a partnership to bring a comprehensive mobile, digital fare collection and journey planning solution to the Indian public transport market.

Out of the $73 Billion that Indians spend on buses, metros, trains and taxis each year, $66.5 Billion (or 91 percent) is spent on public transport modes such as buses and metros (Source: NSSO, Govt. of India). However, commuters continue to face daily hassles when buying tickets, with nearly 95 percent still being paid for in cash. Through this partnership, Masabi and Chalo will enable public transport operators to offer smarter digital ticketing solutions to commuters and facilitate a seamless and convenient ticketing experience via mobile.

Commuters will be able to purchase tickets and store them in their secure mobile ticket wallet. When boarding, the tickets can be activated and shown to the conductor or scanned via a validation device. The mobile ticket wallet works offline meaning passengers can use it even without a data connection. Transport operators will also gain access to a wealth of passenger and real-time vehicle information, helping to optimise transport services across their networks.

Under the terms of the partnership, Chalo will integrate Masabi’s Justride Mobile Ticketing SDK, allowing passengers to purchase and display tickets in the Chalo app. Chalo will also license Masabi’s validation software and bundle it together with Chalo’s existing solution to provide a comprehensive and cost-effective offering. The two companies will cooperate to market the solution to transport corporations, financial institutions and bus operators across India.

“Developed markets have moved to smart cards, but 95% of India’s public transport tickets are still bought with cash. With this partnership we can leapfrog to mobile ticketing, bringing us ahead of many developed markets, and saving the entire investment required for smart cards. Transport corporations also gain with automated revenue collection,” said Mohit Dubey, CEO of Chalo. “In a country with one billion mobile phones, mobile ticketing is an obvious and compelling offering, and will make transportation one of the leading categories in our Digital India and cashless payments initiatives.”

“This announcement again underlines the power of the Justride Mobile Ticketing Platform. By combining our offering with widely deployed complimentary applications we are able to rapidly provide a highly compelling and convenient offering into different markets globally,”said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “We are delighted to welcome Chalo to our SDK partner family and look forward to working with them to bring Justride to the Indian market.”