South African-founded startup WhereIsMyTransport is ceasing operations, its founder Devin de Vries announced today on Linkedln.
“WhereIsMyTransport is at its journey’s end,and what a remarkable experience it has been! Charting a course to enable freedom of movement – at scale in emerging markets – has been a great endeavour and humbling teacher,” De Vries wrote.
He added: “Having failed to raise our round, we’ve stopped operations,” wrote De Vries.
He thanked the investors who have supported him along the way, saying, “Without you, our work would not have been possible.
“Thank you to the team who gave the best of themselves to support our mission to ‘empower people everywhere to get where they want to go’ – your passion and commitment drove me.
“And thank you to the friends, family and many supporters who championed our cause. It took all of you, and I am immensely grateful for the experience.”
WhereIsMyTransport is the world’s leading provider of public transport data in emerging markets.
It is a mobility technology company that maps formal and informal public transport networks and uses this data and technology to improve public transport and make it more reliable, predictable, safe, inclusive and accessible for millions of people in densely populated megacities.
The startup provides commuters in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America with real-time alerts on the public transport network.
De Vries went on to write that in the early days of the company, in his garage – surrounded by friends – he could not imagine where he would go.
“Graduating from that garage, we raised our first funding 8 years ago. In the time since we grew to 140 strong, distributed over 22 countries. All-in-all we numbered 200 employees, supported by 1000’s of gig- mappers, enabling transit data in over 50 cities across 4 continents. Our products served millions of consumers, and supported customers to reach 10’s of millions of transit users.”
He added: “Now it is time for a hard- earned break.”
In 2021, internet giant Naspers invested R42 million in WhereIsMyTransport, which aimed to make it easier for commuters to use public transport.
