Singapore-based smart mobility startup RushOwl announced yesterday (December 27) that it has closed its seed funding round at S$650,000, which was oversubscribed by more than three times over its intended raise amount.
The round saw participation from Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, Silicon Solution Ventures, The Workplace Accelerator, and angel investors from the innovation, HR and public transportation sectors.
Founded in 2018, RushOwl offers on-demand and region-to-region routes to meet every passenger’s needs, and partners with fleet owners, smart cities and even governments globally to create digitised transportation infrastructures.
To date, it has worked with established smart city stakeholders like JTC, HDT (subsidiary of Electric Bus Maker, BYD China) and SMRT to provide smart mobility solutions for passengers.
According to the startup, it will use the funds to expand its ride-sharing product, RushTrail, across Asia Pacific (APAC).
Take a direct bus to work from anywhere
The smart mobility app helps to directly send passengers to their everyday locations to bridge first-mile-last-mile journeys, and is responsible for more than 3,000 islandwide trips daily. It saw a 400 per cent growth in ridership since 2019 as commuters seek for a direct transport alternative from home direct to work during the pandemic.
Through the RushTrail app, commuters can unlock reliable transportation services based on their personal schedules.
An AI module will automatically facilitate the rides by pooling these requests together through the firm’s routing algorithm, resulting in a flexible and environmentally-friendly ride-sharing offering for commuters. This saves time for those who prefer safer and direct journeys to work than going through multiple transit options.
RushOwl also has a corporate service for companies who want to create optimised and flexible employee commute plans. This service helps companies offer additional employee benefits, which aids in employee retention and increased productivity since employees can get to work easily and on time.
In a recent public tender organised by Sentosa Development Corporation, RushOwl has won the smart mobility contract of over S$700,000 to facilitate Sentosa’s employee transportation. Participants of the tender include local transport giant, ComfortDelgro, as well as homegrown smart mobility pioneer, SWAT Mobility.
“We believe that our service will scale exponentially in 2022 because more people are looking at how they can reduce their carbon footprints through their everyday rides. Leveraging on our technology and traction, our goal is to help cities tackle inaccessibility, road congestion and air pollution through shared mobility,” said Shin Ng, co-founder and CEO of RushOwl.
Moving forward, RushOwl will further improve on the RushTrail app to provide better user experiences, partner with electric vehicles, and launch new mobility products to value-add to the firm’s smart commute ecosystem.
The company will also be strengthening its presence in the Singapore market and expanding to mass markets like Vietnam and India by 2022.
Featured Image Credit: RushOwl