New Funding to Accelerate Platform Innovation and Fuel Rapid Market Expansion with Public Transport Agencies Globally
Boston MA, London UK & Menlo Park, CA, March 3, 2022 – Masabi, the company bringing the latest ticketing innovations to public transport around the world via ‘Fare Payments-as-a-Service’, today announced a strategic growth investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused private equity firm with over $11 billion in capital commitments. Existing investors Shell and Smedvig Capital also participated in the round.
This investment will supercharge Masabi’s continued success in disrupting the legacy ticketing industry by accelerating product development and adding new deployments of Justride in North and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Masabi’s market-leading platform is being adopted by an ever-growing number of public transit agencies and authorities of all sizes around the globe. Today, Masabi operates in nine countries, with more than 140 customers in cities such as Denver, Las Vegas, Boston, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Columbus, Calgary, Birmingham, Valencia, Bilbao and Osaka.
Cities and public transit agencies previously had to rely on monolithic automated fare collection (AFC) technology providers to create complex, bespoke ticketing systems resulting in excessive capital expenditures, and requiring significant time and effort to go live. This legacy approach delivers systems that are expensive and time consuming to upgrade, and creates significant challenges maintaining pace with consumer and technology changes.
Masabi disrupts the traditional model by combining SaaS and cloud computing to deliver FPaaS which is easy and quick to upgrade, enabling transit agencies to continually benefit from the latest ticketing innovations quickly and cost-effectively.
“The past few years have seen a revolution in transport ticketing and payments technology, and Masabi has consistently been at the forefront, time-after-time delivering ground-breaking firsts which have shaped the industry,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “This significant investment will help us build on our market-leading technical and geographic foundations, to accelerate company growth and make it easier for more passengers around the globe to safely and quickly access public transport. We’re delighted to welcome Accel-KKR’s support and look forward to working with them to take our growth to the next level.”
Joe Porten, Managing Director of Accel-KKR said, “Over $270 billion is spent every year on tickets for public transit globally, and it is one of the most visible services that local governments provide. Public transit agencies have been underserved by rigid, stifling systems unable to keep up with technology and consumer-facing innovations that riders have come to expect in their daily lives. We have been impressed by Masabi’s agile yet powerful SaaS approach to bring innovation to this space, and we look forward to supporting Brian and the Masabi team as they scale.”
Masabi was advised in the round by CKS Finance and a legal team from Smoosmiths.
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About Masabi
Masabi is bringing Fare Payments-as-a-Service to public transit agencies and authorities of all sizes around the globe. This enables the delivery of the latest fare payment innovations quickly, using a platform that is constantly updating and adding new features. Not only does this improve the journey experience for passengers, but it helps agencies keep up with the pace of technology change, while reducing the total cost of fare collection. Justride, named Ticketing Technology of the Year 2019 and 2020, is used by more than 140 public transit agencies and operators of all sizes across 9 countries. Masabi has offices in Denver, London, Paris and Cluj and investors include Accel-KKR, Smedvig Capital MMC Ventures, Shell and Mastercard. For more information, visit www.masabi.com.
About Accel-KKR
Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with over $11 billion in capital commitments. The firm focuses on software and tech-enabled businesses, well-positioned for topline and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR’s investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value alongside management by leveraging the significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR focuses on middle-market companies and provides a broad range of capital solutions, including buyout capital, minority-growth investments, and credit alternatives. Accel-KKR also invests across various transaction types, including private company recapitalizations, divisional carve-outs and going-private transactions For three consecutive years between 2019 and 2021, Inc. has named Accel-KKR among “PE 50: The Best Private Equity Firms for Entrepreneurs”, an annual list of founder-friendly private equity firms. Accel-KKR was named “Best-Performing PE Firm” globally by HEC-DowJones 2021 Performance Ranking. Accel-KKR is headquartered in Menlo Park with additional offices in Atlanta, London and Mexico City. Visit accel-kkr.com to learn more.
