Optibus, the artificial intelligence platform for public transport planning, scheduling, and rostering, is expanding its UK and European presence with a new London office in the heart of historic Spitalfields.
The move comes as Optibus celebrates a string of developments this year, including its growth to 500 cities, a $107M Series C funding round, and the release of its Geospatial Suite. Even in 2020, in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the number of public agencies and private operators using Optibus doubled, with zero turnover. Now, Optibus is on track to double its staff size over the course of 2021.
To meet growing demand for the Optibus platform in the UK and Europe, and to continue improving the product to match regional transport needs, about 20% of the company’s employees will work from Optibus’ new London Spitalfields location. The office’s work will focus on customer success and solutions engineering for clients throughout the UK and Europe, which includes a growing list of leading providers such as Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and coach operator, Abellio, Vectalia France, and Arriva Italy, Italy’s largest private bus operator.
“We are excited to expand our role in the UK and Europe’s dynamic and essential public transport industry,” said Dave Joshua, Optibus’ General Manager for Europe, who heads the new London office. “Our new Spitalfields office will create room for our rapidly growing team, enable us to provide enhanced local language support to our clients, and bring our market-leading software platform for public transportation to more cities across all countries.”
Recent additions to the UK-Europe team include Jeremy Howat, Customer Success Manager. With over fourteen years of experience in public transport and Depot Allocation Systems (DAS) across the UK and EU, Howat will support transport authorities and operators in getting the most out of the Optibus software.
“Efficient, equitable, and sustainable transport is at the heart of a thriving city,” said Optibus co-founder and CEO Amos Haggiag. “Optibus helps cities realize this vision with ease and speed, leading to more economic opportunities while lowering pollution and congestion. We look forward to bringing these benefits to cities across the UK and Europe.”
Located on Heneage Street, just off Brick Lane, the office is a refurbished Victorian warehouse that served the area’s booming 18th century silk industry, once of London’s largest industries. The space is operated by x+why, an award-winning flexible workspace provider for purpose-driven businesses, whose social and environmental sustainability policies support Optibus’ mission to create cleaner, more equitable cities.
Of course, there’s no shortage of public transport in the area. Optibus’ London offices are reachable by the Underground (District, Hammersmith & City, Central, and Circle lines), the Overground to Liverpool Street Station or Shoreditch High Street, and many, many bus routes.
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