announced today that they raised a $100 million Series C round, bringing the company’s total funding to $137 million. The round was led by Pitango Growth, with participation from Poalim Capital Markets and C4 Ventures, amongst others.
“Via is creating the public transit system of the future,” said Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval, co-founders of Via, in a statement. “With existing transportation infrastructure straining and in some cases failing to meet rising demand across the globe, Via’s dynamic bus system offers cities a smart solution to traffic congestion and emissions.”
Via is trying to re-engineer the way public transit works in the United States. Their algorithm matches multiple people who are headed in the same direction, then routes a vehicle to pick them up. It’s kind of like Uber Black meets the public bus system. Right now the company operates in New York and Chicago, where they’ve provided over four million rides and are experiencing fast user growth.
The company has their headquarters in New York but also has offices in Chicago and Tel Aviv. Israel relies on a series of shared vehicles called sheruts to quickly and inexpensively ferry people along major thoroughfares, and Via’s system is at least partially based on that system.
