Jatri, a mobility-as-a-service startup based in Bangladesh, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a slew of investors, including Superangel, Falcon Network, and Tahseen Consulting.
Several unnamed angel investors — many of whom were early investors and advisors to leading transport apps like Bolt (previously Taxify), Uber, Bird, Angkas, and Buseet — also joined the round.
The funding will allow Jatri to scale up its services in Bangladesh’s populous metropolitan areas and fast track product development for additional transport modalities.
The startup’s pre-seed financing came from Adventure Capital, a global VC fund founded by Fahim Saleh, Co-founder of Pathao and several other on-demand transport apps.
Jatri is currently in discussions with other MENA investors to participate in its Series A round.
Dr Sayd Farook, Co-founder of Falcon Network, said: “In a very short time, Jatri has proven that it has the aptitude to revitalise the public transportation industry in Bangladesh. It has created a pathway for the everyday commuter to benefit from smart solutions, and we believe these solutions have wide-ranging applications in many markets in the Middle East and Africa region as well.”
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Jatri was founded in early 2019 by Aziz Arman, Khondoker Taswar Zahin, and Zia Ahmed who saw an unmet need to enhance the reliability of public transport to address Bangladesh’s notorious traffic congestion challenges and insufficient public transport system.
According to the United Nations, Dhaka’s traffic congestion reduces GDP by 6 per cent annually. It pushes commuters to use private vehicles to get around due to lack of public transport coverage and passenger-centric services offered by transport operators — thereby creating a cycle that results in more congestion from significant private vehicle use.
Transport surveys show that lack of reliability is the primary reason for Bangladeshis not using public transport. Jatri views increased bus ridership as a critical solution to enhancing public transport ridership.
Jatri’s mobile app enables digital tracking and ticketing, which enhances the rider experience on buses. Its technology also allows bus operators to improve schedule adherence and optimise travel times.
Jatri’s technology also has use cases for minibuses, electric scooters and bikes, and other emerging transport modalities.
In just over eight months of operation, Jatri has over 30,000 users, and its technology has been used by leading bus operators to complete more than 50,000 trips.
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“Our initial target is to enhance the rider experience on buses significantly, but we are just getting started. We plan to look at other transport modalities and view, enhancing the public transport experience as a global challenge that Jatri’s technology is positioned to solve. We are creating a solution born in the developing world that can address congestion and enhance public transport ridership in the developing and developed world,” said CEO Arman.
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