The Intel sign outside of the company's corporate headquarters. Image: wolterke/Depositphotos
Intel aims to use Moovit’s technology and transit data to strengthen its Mobileye business.
On Monday (4 May), Intel announced that it has acquired Israeli urban mobility start-up Moovit in a deal worth approximately $900m.
Founded in 2012 by Nir Erez, Roy Bick and Yaron Evron, Moovit has developed an app that offers travellers multimodal trip planning recommendations by combining public transportation, bicycle and scooter services, ride-hailing and car-sharing offerings. Moovit’s app is used by 800m customers in 3,100 cities across 102 countries, according to Intel.
Intel said that the Moovit app’s mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) experience will not change for users and that the start-up will continue to serve users, customers and partners as it did prior to the acquisition.
Expanding Mobileye
Moovit, which has approximately 200 employees, combines information from public transit operators and authorities with live information from the user community to offer travellers a real-time picture of the best route for their journey.
After the close of the acquisition, Moovit will join Intel’s Mobileye business while retaining its brand and existing partnerships. Intel said that the deal will bring Mobileye closer to becoming a “complete mobility provider”.
Intel acquired autotech company Mobileye in 2017. This arm of Intel’s business aims to make roads safer, reduce traffic congestion and provide a complete autonomous vehicle solution stack to cope with a wide variety of driving complexities.
Intel said that Mobileye is a “growth engine” for the business and that it is now investing and expanding to serve new data-rich market opportunities, including advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), data and MaaS technologies, which together could represent an opportunity worth $230bn by 2030.
The ‘future of mobility’
Speaking about the acquisition, Prof Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye, said: “Moovit’s massive global user base, proprietary transportation data, global editors community, strong partners with key transit and mobility ecosystem partners, and highly skilled team is what makes them a great investment.
“Together, with Mobileye’s extensive capabilities in mapping and self-driving technology, we will be able to accelerate our timeline to transform the future of mobility.”
Intel said that Mobileye will be able to use Moovit’s large proprietary transportation dataset to optimise predictive technologies based on customer demand and traffic patterns, as well as tap into Moovit’s data repository of more than 7,500 transit agencies and operators to improve customer experience.
Nir Erez, Moovit co-founder and CEO, added: “We are excited to join forces with Mobileye and lead the future revolution of new mobility services. 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 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.”
The Intel sign outside of the company’s corporate headquarters. Image: wolterke/Depositphotos
