CitySwift raises €7m as firm plans to double workforce

Transport data company CitySwift has raised €7 million in funding to support its expansion plans, as it plans to double its workforce.

The funding round, led by Gresham House Ventures with a €5 million investment, brings to €13 million the total amount raised by the Galway-based company to date. Existing investors Irelandia Investments, the Western Development Commission, and ACT Venture Capital also backed the round.

CitySwift, whose other clients include the GoAhead Group, was founded in September 2016 by Brian O’Rourke and Alan Farrelly. Its technology uses big data and machine learning to increase public transport network performance, service reliability and passenger satisfaction. The platform aggregates, cleans and enriches data from hundreds of sources to ensure accurate data.

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The funding will be used to grow its workforce and further scale its platform development and end-to-end client services The company, which employs 50 people, plans to increase that to 100 by the end of 2025.

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“We want to continue building out functionality, features, products that maintain that competitive advantage,” said Mr O’Rourke. “How we judge ourselves as a company … is delivering ROI [return on investment] and impact for our clients, for cities, for passengers, making buses more reliable, more efficient, and to continue to do that on a scale like we have been doing.”

The company also plans to continue growing. Mr O’Rourke said there was the chance to grow revenue by 10 times in the UK and Irish market alone, with plenty of growth opportunities in its core markets. However, the funding would also allow the company to capitalise on growth opportunities in North America and Europe.

“There’s a lot of government investment going into improving public transport and bus networks,” said Mr O’Rourke. “We’ve seen that in Dublin with BusConnects, but it’s happening right across the world and it’s a big opportunity for us as well.”

The funding comes following significant growth at the company. CitySwift has seen its customer base grow by 150 per cent in 12 months and now covers transport networks in major UK cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast and the entirety of Wales. It counts National Express, Go-Ahead Group, Transport for Wales, Metroline, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Translink and Blackpool Transport among its clients.

“CitySwift’s growth in recent years has been impressive, and the team’s knowledge of both bus networks and data science makes this a compelling and unique proposition,” said Benjamin Faulkner, associate director at Gresham House Ventures.

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