Dive Brief:
- Urban mobility data firm Moovit will partner with Microsoft to incorporate its transit data to Azure Maps and in its first party applications.
- Moovit collects mobility data from millions of users around the world, which it offers to city planners and users through a transit app. That data will now be integrated with mapping features on the Azure platform to offer real-time transit information, route guides and maps.
- "By offering location awareness with public transit data on Microsoft Azure Maps, developers not only can create more sophisticated and smarter, real-time location-based apps, but our cloud customers across a variety of industries like automotive, public sector, manufacturing and healthcare will be able to leverage this data to continue to improve how people get around and get access to services globally," Tara Prakriya, of Microsoft’s group program management for Azure Maps and connected vehicles, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Moovit, based in Tel Aviv, boasts that it has 300 million registered users over 85 countries for its transit app, adding up to the “world’s largest repository of transit data.” More than 450,000 users the company calls "Mooviters" monitor and edit the data, making it practical for riders. Moovit says its wide scope means it is collecting real-time transit information from agencies that don’t distribute it themselves.
The integration into the Azure suite mirrors the efforts made by other mobility companies to ensure that users have real-time transit information. Lyft, for example, put transit directions into its app last year. Google Maps last month added real-time commute information, including transit timing and routes, into its app, in part to help customers gauge how to use public transit to get to work. Some transit agencies offer real-time information on their own, but efforts like the Azure partnership can get that information directly in front of users in apps they are already using.
In February, Moovit announced $50 million in Series D funding, which it applied to expanding its global sales team and enhancing its data collection, as well as a collaboration with Israeli-based tech firm Mobileye. The partnership with Microsoft will offer another boost for the growing company, and a significant platform to show off its stores of data.
