Remix, the startup that developed mapping software program utilized by cities for transportation planning and road design, was born out of a hackathon throughout a Code for America fellowship. Almost seven years later, the San Francisco-based startup is being acquired by By way of for $100 million in money and fairness.
Remix will develop into a subsidiary of By way of, an association that can let the startup preserve its impartial model. Remix’s 65 workers and two of its co-founders — CEO Tiffany Chu and CTO Dan Getelman — will keep on.
The acquisition provides one more service to By way of’s ever-expanding enterprise in addition to buyer base of greater than 350 native governments in 22 international locations.
Remix’s power is in planning, whereas By way of brings experience in software program and operations, Chu mentioned in a current interview.
“By having these two strengths come collectively, we may be a lot stronger as an end-to-end resolution — from the preliminary genesis of this concept round transportation planning and carrying that by way of to operations — in a manner that we, individually, wouldn’t have been capable of obtain in any other case,” Chu mentioned.
By way of began as a on-demand shuttle operator in 2012. The corporate, which final 12 months hit a $2.25 billion valuation after elevating $400 million in a Sequence E spherical, has developed from its preliminary consumer-facing focus.
Right now, By way of’s core enterprise is its software program and operations platform, which is utilized by cities and transportation authorities to plan, schedule and deploy their very own on-demand and stuck route transit, paratransit and college buses. By way of has 200 companions in 24 international locations.
By way of is backed by Exor, the Agnelli household holding firm that owns stakes in PartnerRe, Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler Vehicles in addition to Macquarie Capital, Mori Constructing, Shell 83North, Broadscale Group, Ervington Investments, Hearst Ventures, Planven Ventures, Pitango and RiverPark Ventures.
Unintentional founders
Remix’s Silicon Valley-esque origin story was pushed by some unlikely entrepreneurs.
Chu had been a consumer expertise designer at Zipcar when she moved to San Francisco to finish a one-year fellowship with Code for America. In the midst of the fellowship, Chu alongside her eventual co-founders Getelman, Sam Hashemi and Danny Whalen had been engaged on a hackathon challenge that to assist residents of San Francisco counsel higher transit routes to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Company.
The transportation planning instrument was shared on Twitter and it went viral. Inside two weeks, 30,000 maps had been created.
“It grew to become this humorous, sudden armchair transportation planning instrument that individuals explored on-line,” Chu recalled. Nevertheless it wasn’t simply the native citizenry who took discover. About 200 city planners reached out, asking the crew to construct further options that might be utilized by businesses for their very own transportation planning initiatives.
“It was type of a thoughts blowing second for us once we realized the challenge that was purported to be a grassroots type of civic challenge truly had implications round fixing actual wants and issues in transportation,” Chu mentioned.
Remix was based shortly after and the corporate’s founders utilized and had been accepted into Y Combinator. The corporate went on to lift a complete of $27 million in investments from Y Combinator, Sequoia and Power Influence Companions.