UK business Masabi, which has pioneered the introduction of mobile tickets for public transport, has secured $2.8 million (£1.8 million) in funding from investment firms Fontinalis Partners, MMC Ventures and m8 Capital. The money will be used to accelerate the roll-out of mobile tickets in the USA following the company’s successful implementation of m-tickets for rail and ferry services in Boston.
Masabi currently processes more than $50 million of ticket sales every year worldwide, including 12 UK rail operators and Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. More than 10% of MBTA ticket sales are now mobile tickets.
Ben Whitaker, CEO of Masabi, said “Masabi’s partnership-based approach to implementing agile fare collection means that transport agencies can have a revolutionary mobile ticketing system in months, not years, as we have shown with the MBTA in Boston. Because Masabi takes on the risk of delivering the new service on-time and on-budget, we only succeed when the agency succeeds.”
London-based m8 Capital invested £2.5 million in Masabi just over a year ago.