Zeelo – a global transit-tech company powering bus operators, employers and schools to provide highly efficient, sustainable, and affordable private bus and shuttle transport programs – announced it had secured $14 million in its latest Series A extension round from three new venture capital firms, including FlatzHoffmann, the European growth equity investor; IREON Ventures, the venture capital arm of Motor Oil Hellas; and a prominent Boston-based family office with a principal that recently took their Nasdaq listing private for $6 billion.
In an oversubscribed funding round led by FlatzHoffmann, with additional participation from angels and venture capital funds, Zeelo commits to accelerate and scale the team and operations and launch new technology products to serve US enterprise clients and operators for employee shuttle transportation needs for commutes across the East and West coasts.
Zeelo – which has live operations on three continents – is on a mission to accelerate expansion in the US, opening its second headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. And the company co-founders Sam Ryan and Barney Williams have relocated to invest in scaling the team to meet increased demand while fellow co-founder and CTO Dani Ruiz continues to build the engineering team in Europe to accelerate new product development.
The company has already secured contracts with Fidelity as well as two leading multi-site corporate enterprise clients, including the world’s leading e-commerce marketplace and a global shipping and logistics business. And this sets the stage for rapid revenue growth at low capital expenditure in the world’s leading developed market. With a proven Transport-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform, Zeelo is well-positioned to capture significant market share and drive sustainable growth within the B2B bus commuting sector in developed markets. The combined US and UK mass transportation market is worth $40 billion.
The company addresses the evolving needs of B2B organizations like shift worker employers, office worker employers, schools, and universities, thus providing customized transportation services for daily commutes to suburban and peri-urban areas that lack sufficient mass transit coverage. And Zeelo’s platform offers relevant insights to its clients to plan their headcount, production capabilities, and staff punctuality to save clients on average of 12 hours per week in administrative tasks, increase bus ridership by 50% and enable 43% in cost savings per year, on average, for employee shuttle transportation.
FlatzHoffmann – which was established this year by Alois Flatz and Christopher Hoffmann – operates in Munich and Zurich with a pan-European reach. And the fund targets companies at the later-stage growth phase from Series A onwards, with established customer use cases, recurring revenues, and sound unit economics. These partners bring substantial investment and operational experience to the table. Alois Flatz was an early partner at Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), a partner at cleantech investor Zouk Capital and a Senior Advisor at Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management fund. And Christopher Hoffmann is an operator-investor who was a growth equity investor at Zouk Capital and has a 10-year operational track record as CFO of growth companies, including a successful cleantech IPO in 2016 with va-Q-tec.
Zeelo also passes on carbon dioxide emissions savings to its clients and has committed to transitioning all services to net-zero emissions battery-electric buses by 2030, with nearly 10% of Zeelo’s UK clients having already made the switch to electric buses for their commuter services. Last year, Zeelo offset over 2,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and created over 26,000 employment opportunities, with 70% of Zeelo riders admitting that they rely on the service to commute to work, and without which they would not have been able to accept their job.
Zeelo has an experienced, execution-focused, and entrepreneurial management team. And the co-founders previously built, led and successfully exited their first transit-tech business to Addison Lee.
KEY QUOTES:
“Developed markets are underserved for daily mass transportation needs and we have seen increased demand for our transit-tech solution in the United States over the past 12 months. Due to this demand, we’ve had a growing number of requests from shuttle operators to leverage our technology to improve their client relationships and streamline operations. This new capital will accelerate Zeelo’s expansion across the US for an accelerated rollout of large scale, multi-site transportation contracts, with some of North America’s biggest household brands, as well as further investment in our software offering.”
— Sam Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO at Zeelo
“Our newly set up fund seeks to support technology companies with proven business models and a lasting environmental impact. We help them navigate the transition from Series A to growth and beyond. Zeelo is a unique and proven mobility player headquartered in Europe with a strong expansion push to the US. It combines a strong transit-tech platform with a clear sustainability mission. We are convinced of Zeelo’s experienced leadership team and their ability to innovate and execute. They have come very far in building their business, and we look forward to supporting their growth strategy for developed markets.”
— Christopher Hoffmann, Partner at FlatzHoffmann
