JOIN USPost its massive success in the Baltic states, Trafi, a public transport app that helps plan city journeys, has marked its entry into India through Bengaluru and Mumbai.
The app integrates all modes of public transport available in a city to provide the user with the most efficient combination to get from one point to another. Rajarshi Rakesh Sahai, Country Manager for India, Trafi, notes that owing to the complexity and multiplicity of modes of transport, the company’s Istanbul operations by far have been the most challenging and therefore the most successful.
“The public transport and traffic conditions in Istanbul have enabled it to become the champion location in terms of accuracy and userbase. It gave insights into the uncertainties of an emerging market,” he said. As per its strategy, the company will expand into cities that throw new challenges in public transport. “India offers infinite opportunities for expansion and learning. We are on an aggressive expansion mode here. While New Delhi is already on the cards, within this quarter we plan to expand to atleast 10 cities,” said he said.
What started off as an experimental website in Lithuania in 2013, is now a widely used app in six countries including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Brazil, Turkey and Russia, while it is fairly new in Taiwan and India.
Emerging markets, he said, are where the company sees potential and scope for expansion. “There is no point in being just another operator in London and New York. We see opportunity in markets like Pakistan and Bangladesh, where a real problem exists,” added Sahai.
The London-incorporated company operates out of Lithuania and has raised a seed round of $500,000 in 2012, followed by a Series A round of $6.5 million in 2015.
DH News Service