Optibus, which modernizes mass transit for the world's leading transportation operators with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, announced the closing of a $ 40 million Series B financing round, led by Insight Venture Partners with a strategic investment by Alibaba Group.

The Series B funding will drive future product innovation and support expansion into new and existing markets. Existing investors, including Verizon Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, New Era Capital, and Sir Ronald Cohen, also participated in the round.

Optibus creates an operational plan and schedule that orchestrates the movements of every vehicle and driver in a city-wide transportation ecosystem, choosing the best options available to transit operators and agencies, and creating better service for passengers with lower operating costs.

Since its Series A funding round in 2017, Optibus has expanded its presence in North America and Europe. The company has also seen its sales grow by 400% and its product chosen for more than 300 cities worldwide.

This latest round of investment will give the company greater visibility in North America as the leader in transit optimization and dynamic transportation planning. It will also provide the financial wherewithal for Optibus to develop the software that will assist transit agencies and cities make the dream of smart city integration come true, company officials told METRO Magazine.  

"Every city on the globe runs a multi-million to multi-billion dollar mass transit service, yet the operations rely on outdated software and manual practices to plan, optimize, and run transportation," said Amos Haggiag, co-founder and CEO of Optibus. "This wastes resources and delivers poor passenger service. On the other hand, rapid innovations in urban mobility are pushing transportation providers to modernize, and Optibus creates the technology infrastructure that can ensure better performance from the passenger's point of view."

Optibus currently drives some of the most complex and large-scale transportation operations worldwide, helping improve quality of service and efficiency, increase service availability and predictability, reduce costs, and streamline operations for some of the world's largest transportation providers including Keolis, First Group, Transdev, and RATP Dev.