Gresham House Ventures leads £6m round in transport intelligence provider CitySwift

Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialising in scaling businesses across a range of sectors in the UK and Ireland, has invested €5mn (£4.3mn) in CitySwift, an intelligent transport data platform that increases the performance of public transport networks using AI-powered analytics, simulations and optimisations.

Led by Benjamin Faulkner and Tom Makey, the investment formed part of a €7.0mn (£6.0mn) round with all existing investors following including ACT Venture Capital, Irelandia Investments, and the Western Development Commission.

Based in Galway, Ireland, CitySwift works with public sector transport authorities and private bus operators to break down the barriers to accessing and interpreting transport data. With hybrid working from home patterns and increasing leisure travel, cities have to become more agile in their operations to ensure passengers can access fit-for-purpose, convenient transport services.

CitySwift’s platform aggregates, cleans and enriches data from hundreds of sources, providing both operators and authorities with an accurate single source of truth.

Governments are incentivising city authorities and operators to work together to solve climate and congestion issues in cities. Rapid access to accurate data across the entire network fuels this collaboration, enabling both parties to take a more dynamic, data-driven approach to move passengers away from private modes of transport to more sustainable, climate-friendly public transportation.

CitySwift’s customer base has grown by 150 per cent in the last 12 months, and covers transport networks in all of the major UK cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast, and the entire country of Wales. Notable clients include National Express, Go-Ahead Group, Transport for Wales, Metroline, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Translink and Blackpool Transport.

The investment will be used to accelerate CitySwift’s platform development, providing both authorities and operators with AI-powered data solutions to future-proof transport networks. These funds will also enable CitySwift to scale their end-to-end client services - with dedicated, specialised Customer Success supporting every stage of the customer journey - further securing the company’s reputation as the leading transportation data innovators in the UK and global markets.

The investment continues a busy period of dealmaking for Gresham House Ventures and extends its investment activity in the transport and intelligent data areas. The Gresham House Ventures existing investment portfolio includes VivaCity (smart city and traffic management solutions), FocalPoint (satellite-based positioning technology) and Branchspace (travel technology software).

Benjamin Faulkner, Associate Director at Gresham House Ventures, said: “CitySwift’s growth in recent years has been impressive, and the team’s knowledge of both bus networks and data science makes this a compelling and unique proposition.

With our experience working with other transport and mobility data businesses, we look forward to supporting CitySwift as it continues to deliver real-world benefits for transport passengers across the UK, Ireland and global markets over the coming years.”

Brian O’Rourke, Co-founder and CEO at CitySwift, said: “Public transport services have to be reliable and efficient to drive passenger growth, and key to this is leveraging AI and data to ensure the transport networks of the future meet ever-changing customer needs.

"This investment is a massive vote of confidence in CitySwift’s platform and people. It will support us in nurturing our existing partnerships with authorities and operators, and building new ones, further positioning CitySwift as the catalyst for growing demand for public transport.”

• By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily
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