Smart mobility information refers to the collection of platforms and apps that provide information on the transport infrastructure of a city. This includes multimodal transport options, traffic & road safety conditions, and parking facilities.
These platforms address several challenges in city travel that commuters, transport planners, and operators face, aiming to enhance the experience and convenience of commuting by saving time, reducing congestion, and improving safety.
Multimodal mobility management and parking inventory management platforms are the most popular segments. This may reflect the fact that they are provided on a B2B basis and typically follow a subscription-based model —a more stable revenue model compared with their B2C counterparts (transport planning apps as well as park and go apps), which follow a freemium or pay-per-use model. A number of incumbents from the automotive sector, along with traditional parking operators, also operate in this segment.
Traffic flow management systems are dominated by a few startups that have secured funding. Meanwhile, there are only a handful of disruptors in the road safety alert segment, with a number of them at an experimental stage. This may reflect the higher competition faced by satellite navigation systems (SatNav) and in-vehicle information systems , which also provide alerts on road safety and traffic conditions. The majority of disruptors across most segments are at an early stage of development , while many disruptors at the pre-seed/seed stage in the multimodal mobility management segment are focusing on emerging modes of transport like micromobility.
Based on the startups we have identified, multimodal mobility management is the highest funded segment. Via, a platform with a wide range of use cases, is the highest funded disruptor and is an outlier in terms of the volume and frequency of fundraising (accounting for ~68% of the segment’s funding). Several other startups such as Waze and Moovit, which raised significant funding, were subsequently acquired by established players like Google and Intel.
Most disruptors in the transport planning apps segment, such as Citymapper, compete against well-known mapping platforms like Google and Apple maps by offering purpose-built solutions for multimodal city transport. The segment is relatively fragmented and has faced challenges in terms of its revenue model. Some firms like Trafi have pivoted toward B2B solutions, while others like Citymapper, Transit, and Spotangels have introduced paid subscription-based models.
Similarly, the park and go apps segment features a large number of disruptors, with those that offer wide geographical coverage and a range of features having an edge over their peers. For instance, in 1H 2021, the top five most popular parking apps—Park Mobile, Passport, SpotHero, PayByPhone, and Arrive (formerly known as ParkWhiz)— accounted for 90% of the market share.
Early entrants to the traffic flow management segment INRIX and Miovision account for the lion’s share of the funding for traffic, while Waze, the most well-known road safety alert system, was acquired by Google in 2013.
Several global technology firms such as Google and Intel have entered the smart mobility information space via the acquisition of well-established startups . Tech firms hope to apply their artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to provide enhanced mobility-related solutions.
A few vehicle manufacturers such as Volvo have invested in this space with the intent of providing better services to their customers . They also hope to l everage data from connected vehicles to provide additional data and insights for traffic management and other mobility-related applications.
In terms of parking-related solutions, many well-established, large-scale “traditional” parking firms (firms that own parking real estate and typically use non-tech-based parking management techniques), such as Ace Parking and REEF, have developed in-house tech solutions. These include parking apps and cloud-based parking management platforms, which complement their industry expertise , helping them compete directly with startups in the smart parking segment.
With respect to mass transport such as buses and trains operated by public transport agencies, a number of them have developed smart mobility solutions either in-house (such as TFL Go, a mobility information app developed by Transport for London) or in partnership with third parties. As these are public entities, which have purpose-built these solutions for their specific requirements, they are excluded as competitors.
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