INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Bestmile, a transportation software startup, has raised $16.5 million in a Series B round led by Blue Lagoon Capital and TransLink
Capital.Existing investors Road Ventures, Partech, Groupe ADP, Airbus Ventures, Serena and others also participated in the round
The company, which launched in 2014, has raised $31 million to date.Bestmile has developed fleet management software that orchestrates the
delicate balance between demand for, and supply of transportation
However, the emergence of new and varied ways for people and packages to move within cities has created new opportunities for software
companies.Bestmile is aiming to become the preferred platform for public transit operators, automakers and taxi companies that offer
ride-hailing, microtransit, autonomous shuttle services and even robotaxis
While Bestmile emphasizes the ability of the platform to manage more futuristic means of travel, namely autonomous shuttles, fleet
management software is designed to be agnostic
This means it will work for human-driven fleets like traditional taxi cabs as well as autonomous shuttles and, someday, robotaxis.The
It then uses the data to squeeze the most out of the fleet
That means balancing demand from customers with the cost of operations.The startup, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland and has an
office in San Francisco, already has a number of customers, including autonomous shuttle operators
Bestmile announced earlier this week that it has partnered with Beep, an autonomous shuttle company in Orlando, Fla.Blue Lagoon partners
Rogers is now board chairman
and Reid co-founded enterprise cloud services company Virtustream, which was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2015 for $1.2 billion
The business is now part of Dell Technologies.
