Moovit ( he, מוביט) is an Israel-based

mobility as a service Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a type of service that, through a joint digital channel, enables users to plan, book, and pay for multiple types of mobility services. The concept describes a shift away from personally-owned modes of transportation ...

provider and journey planner app. It has been owned by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

through the

Mobileye Mobileye Global Inc. is a company developing autonomous driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) including cameras, computer chips and software. Mobileye was acquired by Intel in 2017 and went public again in 2022. Mobi ...

subsidiary since 2020. The company uses both crowdsourced and official

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

data to provide route planning to users as well as transit data APIs to transit companies, cities, and transit agencies. Because Moovit integrates crowdsourced data, it is able to provide transit information for areas where no data is officially available.

History

Originally called Tranzmate, Moovit was founded as a startup in Israel in 2012 by developers Nir Erez, Roy Bick, and Yaron Evron. The company raised $3.5 million in its first round of funding from Gemini Funds and BRM Capital. By the beginning of 2013, the company launched worldwide. In 2013, Moovit went on to receive $28 million of funding from venture-capital

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total ...

, BRM Group, and Gemini Funds. In March 2014, Moovit launched a "community editor" allowing volunteer editors to generate schedule and map data, providing transit data for areas in which no data is officially available to app developers. In January 2015, the company raised $50 million in its Series-C funding round from new and previous investors. In 2016, Moovit was awarded The Atlas Award by the

Ayn Rand Institute The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand ...

. In February 2018, Moovit raised another $50 million in its Series-D funding round. The funding was led by

Intel Capital Intel Capital is a division of Intel Corporation, set up to manage corporate venture capital, global investment, mergers and acquisitions. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies offering hardware, s ...

, with participation by former investors. As part of the round,

Amnon Shashua Amnon Shashua (; born May 26, 1960) is an Israeli computer scientist and businessman. He is the Sachs Professor of Computer Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mobileye, Co-Founder of ...

, vice president of

, joined Moovit's board of directors as an observer. In December 2017, the app reached 100 million users and provided service in 1,500 cities in 78 countries. In August 2019, Moovit announced that it is used by over 500 million people around the world and is available in more than 3,000 cities across 92 countries around the world. In February 2020, the app reached 720 million users and provided service in 100 countries, and by May 2020, when Intel acquired Moovit, it had 800 million users. In May 2020, Moovit was acquired by

for $900 million and has integrated with

Partnerships

Moovit has been named as the official mobility partner for several sporting events and sports teams. The company was the official mobility app for the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

, and the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 Augus ...

. In 2018, the company partnered with Unipublic to provide mobility services for the multi-stage bicycle race

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the ...

. Moovit has also been named as the official mobility app of

AS Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its ...

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

, and

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...

. In November 2018, it was announced that Moovit and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

entered into a partnership to provide Moovit's public transit data to Azure Maps to provide transit data and APIs to developers. In February 2019, Moovit,

TomTom TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004 ...

, and

announced a multi-modal trip planner, combining driving, parking and taking public transit. In October 2019, Moovit began collaborating with

Waze Waze (; he, ווייז, label=Hebrew), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In addition to ...

to integrate Waze's carpooling service into Moovit's service in the US, Brazil, Mexico and Israel. In January 2020, Moovit and

Cubic Transportation Systems Cubic Corporation is an American public transportation and defense corporation. It operates two business segments: Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS). History Cubic Corporation was founded i ...

announced that they entered into a partnership to incorporate Moovit's Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) functionality with Cubic's Traveler App. In September 2021, Moovit and

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.mobile and

web app A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

to navigate public transit networks with

GPS navigation A satellite navigation device (satnav device) is a user equipment that uses one or more of several global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to calculate the device's geographical position and provide navigational advice. Depending on the s ...

across transit modes, including buses,

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...

(metro/subway/underground, etc.),

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

es, ride-hailing, shared bicycle,

car sharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

, and

scooters Scooter may refer to: Vehicles Ground Human or gravity powered * Eccentric-hub scooter, propelled by a standing rider making a bouncing motion * Kick scooter, propelled by a standing rider pushing off the ground * Knee scooter, a mobility dev ...

. Users can access a live map, and view nearby stops and stations based on their current GPS location, as well as plan trips across transportation modes based on

real-time data Real-time data (RTD) is information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Real-time data is often used for navigation or tracking. Such data is usually processed using real- ...

. The application differs from traditional public transit applications as it integrates official public transit data from transit operators with real-time data collected from users via

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

. In addition to passively sharing data, users can actively send reports, including reasons for delays, overcrowding, satisfaction with their bus driver, and Wi-Fi availability.

Services

In June 2017, Moovit announced a new tool for city authorities and transport agencies called 'Moovit urban mobility analytics' that uses population movement data and analytics to provide visual insights on public transport. In January 2019, Moovit announced TimePro, a cloud-based GPS-based AVL solution for transit agencies. TimePro provides real-time bus arrival to users, and a web dashboard displaying the information for all running vehicles. Moovit's Transit APIs are used by

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pa ...

and

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...

for public transit options. In October 2019, Michigan governor

Gretchen Whitmer Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 ...

announced that a mobility app will be developed by Moovit, offering autonomous vehicle rides for attendees of the 2020

North American International Auto Show The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), also known as the Detroit Auto Show as of 2022 and prior to NAIAS, is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., at Huntington Place. The show was held in January from 1989 to 2019. ...

in Detroit in June 2020. In December 2020, Moovit and SmartBus announced the launch of the Quick CONNECT service in Detroit, powered by Moovit On-Demand technology.

Controversy

In January 2021, it was publicly condemned after a historic Nova Scotia Black community was labelled using a racist slur. The area it referred to as "Dartmouth-Preston" appeared as the N-word followed by "ville" in its listings. The area indicated on the app's map was in the general area of the Prestons. The Preston area is a historic Black community on the outskirts of Dartmouth, N.S., made up of neighbouring North Preston, East Preston and Cherry Brook. The app indicated it was last edited on Jan. 19, meaning the offensive term could have been there for two weeks. Moovit publicly apologized and maintained that its team works hard to filter out and remove inaccurate information "as soon as we become aware of them"

Moovit and public transport (transit)

Santos and Nikolaev (2021) explore the association between the popularity of searches in Google using the term “Moovit” and the share of workers that commute by public transport. They focus on metropolitan areas in the United States over the period 2010 to 2019 and find a positive correlation. They speculate that metropolitan areas with pre-existing higher shares of workers commuting by public transport tend to be metropolitan areas where use of Moovit is more likely.

References

{{reflist Crowdsourcing Mobile route-planning software Public transport 2012 software Android (operating system) software IOS software Israeli brands 2020 mergers and acquisitions

History

Partnerships

Services

Controversy

Moovit and public transport (transit)

See also

References