Israeli Entrepreneurs Drive Transportation Tech

With a fresh $50 million in Series C funding announced yesterday, Israeli public transportation startup Moovit has sped into 5th on a list of Israel’s top venture-backed startups.

Israeli entrepreneurs have been winning in the transportation market lately — from mobile navigation app Waze‘s $966 million exit to Google in 2013, to taxi booking startup GetTaxi‘s latest $150 million funding tranche announced in August.

Moovit counts two of Israel’s most active VCs — Sequoia and Gemini Israel — as return backers in this latest round, which also saw participation from transport giants BMW and Keolis.

Moovit’s rapid growth has prompted frequent comparisons to Waze, which raked in $67 million (in part from Israel’s 5th most active Magma Venture Partners) before being snapped up by Google in 2013.

Now it appears Sequoia and Gemini are ready to double down on transportation after witnessing the big returns both Silicon Valley’s KPCB and Magma saw on the Waze investment.

Israel-based startups set new funding records in 2014, capturing a cumulative $1.2 billion across 177 venture rounds. With $78 million in venture dollars tracked in the first two weeks of 2015, it looks like Israeli entrepreneurs won’t be letting up any time soon.

Image via Flickr user RonAlmog.

  • Originally published January 15, 2015, updated April 26, 2023