The acquisition comes at critical moments both in the world of transportation, as well as in the world of startups.
On the transportation side, many people around the world are being asked to curtail their movement to slow down the spread of COVID-19 cases in what has become a global pandemic; and partly as a result of that same public health crisis, the global economy has been in a major downswing. Both have had a direct impact on the automotive world, which is seeing some not only changing courses in ambitious next-generation strategies, but bigger shut-downs in all automotive production, both to contain coronavirus spread and to respond to the big drop in purchasing demand.
On the tech side, all companies big and small have been working on leveraging their assets in as optimised a way as possible to help keep things moving (so to speak). That has been playing out specifically in the world of transportation startups, too.
For Moovit, consumer usage of its app will have drastically dropped off with people moving around less, but at the same time, the company launched a series of COVID-19 services to help those customers that still need to keep things operational, and still need to give their users data and transportation options to get from A to B.
These have included a special service for transit data managers (which it’s offering for free, unlike its normal B2B products) to both receive updated transit and traffic data and subsequently put in place “thousands of short-term changes quickly, enabling riders to plan their trips with only updated, valid routes.”
Moovit also started a real-time service for its app users to make sure that they are getting those alerts. Thirdly, it has launched an “emergency mobilisation on-demand” service that lets transportation managers redeploy buses on routes more quickly to better serve essential workers that are still using public transport.
There is also the issue of funding, and where Moovit happened to be sitting on that front. The company last raised back in 2018 — its investors, alongside Intel, were a pretty illustrious list that included NGP Capital, BMW, Sound Ventures, Gemini Israel, Sequoia Israel and LVMH.
It’s not at all clear if Moovit had been working on raising more money, or if it had been feeling the same pinch that so many other startups have felt when it comes to closing deals at the moment, or if Intel’s offer was too good to refuse right now, or even if it was on the table before COVID-19. Regardless, this is a complementary fit that will not face the classic issues of integrating teams that have never worked together before, given the existing relationship.
“We are excited to join forces with Mobileye and lead the future revolution of new mobility services,” said Nir Erez, Moovit co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Mobility is a basic human right, and as cities become more crowded, urban mobility becomes more difficult. Combining the daily mobility habits and needs of millions of Moovit users with the state-of-the-art, safe, affordable and eco-friendly transportation enabled by self-driving vehicles, we will be able to make cities better places to live in. We share this vision and look forward to making it a reality as part of Mobileye.”
More to come.