Remix, a startup that developed mapping software used by municipalities for transportation planning and street design, was born out of a hackathon in a Code for America fellowship. Seven years after its birth, San Francisco-based Remix will be acquired by Via for $ 100 million in cash and stock transactions.
Remix will become a subsidiary of Via and maintain an independent brand. Remix’s 65 employees and two co-founders, CEO Tiffany Chu and CTO Dan Getelman, will remain with the company.
The acquisition adds new services to Via’s expanding business and a customer base of more than 350 municipalities across 22 countries.
Remix’s strength lies in planning. Via, on the other hand, has expertise in software and operations, Chu said in a recent interview.
“By bringing together the strengths of the two companies, we will be firmly established as an end-to-end solution in a way that could not be achieved individually until we came up with ideas for transportation planning and put them into practice.” Said Mr. Chu.
Image credit: Remix
Via started as an on-demand shuttle operator in 2012. The company, which was valued at $ 2.25 billion after raising $ 400 million in the 2020 Series E round, was initially launched with a focus on consumers. It was.
And on March 10th, Via’s core businesses are software and operations platforms. It is used by municipalities and transportation authorities to plan, schedule and deploy on-demand and fixed-route transportation, auxiliary transportation and school buses. The company has 200 partners in 24 countries.
Via is funded by Exor. Exor is a holding company of the prestigious Italian conglomerate Agnelli family, which includes PartnerRe, Ferrari, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Macquarie Capital, Mori Building, Shell 83North, Broadscale Group, Ervington Investments, Hearst Ventures, Planven Ventures, Pitango and River Park Ventures. I also have a stake in.
Accidental founding
Remix’s Silicon Valley-inspired founding was brought about by unlikely entrepreneurs.
Ju was a user experience designer at Zipcar when he moved to San Francisco to complete his one-year Fellowship with Code for America. In the middle of the fellowship, Chu and later co-founders Getterman, Sam Hashemi, and Danny Whalen suggest San Francisco citizens better transportation routes to the San Francisco Transport Authority. Was working on a hackathon project to support.
The transportation planning tool was shared on Twitter and spread by word of mouth. And in two weeks, 30,000 maps were created.
“It’s become an interesting and unexpected handy transportation planning tool for people to explore online,” Chu recalled. But it wasn’t just the locals who paid attention to this. About 200 city planners have contacted and asked to build additional features that authorities will use for their transportation planning projects.
“We realized that what was supposed to be a grassroots civil project could actually be applied to real-world transportation needs and problems. It was a pretty amazing moment for us,” said Chu.
Remix was founded shortly thereafter, and the company’s founders applied for and accepted Y Combinator. The company subsequently raised a total of $ 27 million in funding from Y Combinator, Sequoia and Energy Impact Partners.