TRAFI, a public transport mobile app designed to accurately plan journeys using real-time data, has completed a successful Series A funding round totalling USD6.5m.
The round was led by Octopus Investments with the EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme and BaltCap, who all join existing investors Practica Capital.
TRAFI, which was founded in Lithuania in 2013, provides precise journey planning information, using a mix of data collected from users and transit authorities. The team’s focus is on high-growth emerging markets, where they use predictive technology to look at local traffic patterns and then apply TRAFI’s algorithm to calculate exact journey times.
The app was named in Apple’s highly regarded ‘Best Apps of 2014’ list, and is currently available in Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Brazil. The USD6.5m announced today will enable TRAFI to launch in additional markets, scale the team, including the planned hire of a VP of Growth and further develop the technology behind the app. TRAFI are also opening up a London-based office.
Martynas Gudonavičius, Founder and CEO of TRAFI, says: “To have such strong backing at this point from illustrious investors makes this a particularly exciting time for us. Existing solutions tend to focus on scaling to multiple cities quickly, without fixing the core problem: that publicly available public transportation information is often inaccurate, which in time results in poor user engagement.”
“We see enormous potential in emerging market cities where complex transport networks and the imperfect public information available currently makes it difficult for commuters to plan their journeys. In environments like these, TRAFI’s highly accurate platform sets us apart from existing public and private solutions.”
Simon King, from the Ventures team at Octopus Investments, says: “At Octopus we believe in backing great teams from across Europe and, in TRAFI we’re very excited about partnering with one of the top teams to come out of Lithuania.”
