Mass mobility startup Jatri raises fresh foreign funds for expansion

Jatri, a startup working on the digitalisation of public transportation in Bangladesh, has successfully completed an oversubscribed "Series A" investment round, stacking its cumulative total venture investment to $5.25 million.

With the fresh funds, Jatri will expand its operation to new cities and augment its existing services, the company said in a recent statement. 

The fundraising was led by a Singapore-based venture capital fund SBK Tech Ventures, along with the participation of notable global investors such as ALSA Ventures, Genting Ventures, DVC Ventures, and Doha Tech Angels, among others.

Series A financing refers to an investment in a privately-held startup company after it has shown progress in building its business model.

This latest round consists of new and follow-on investments from existing investors such as Reflect Ventures, Brain-Too-Free Ventures, Tocumsef Capital, and Sabr Capital.

The company, however, did not disclose the size of this round but observers estimate it to be a figure of around $4 million as it disclosed its pre-Series A fundraising of $1.2 million in September 2021.

The fundraising by Jatri is good news for local startups amid a slowed-down global venture capital flow since the Russia-Ukraine war began.

Currently, around 3,000 intra-city buses in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet use Jarti's digital devices and technology platform for ticketing to get rid of the traditional chaotic process of collecting inconsistent bus fare, the non-transparent way how the vehicle owners get the reports of actual fare collected by bus conductors, and many others, according to Aziz Arman, co-founder and CEO of Jatri.

"Commuters regularly face challenges such as overcrowded buses, inconsistent fares, and premium charges by conductors, while bus operators and owners grapple with pilferage caused by a lack of visibility and cash book-based record-keeping," he told The Business Standard.

 "Even 12-15 months ago, we had around 600 buses under coverage and that grew by five times already," he said.

The company is currently focused on integrating digital payment options, which will enable the transition to a cashless society in an industry that has historically relied on cash transactions.

"Around 80,000 buses are running across the country and Jatri is also serving long-haul bus operators in digitising their ticketing," the CEO said.

Jatri lets passengers book tickets for more than 30 buses on national routes and the number is increasing, according to Aziz Arman, who informed that more than 40 launches opted for Jarti's ticketing services.

"With the fresh capital we will expand our network within the current cities and also enter into new cities including Khulna and a few in North Bengal," he said.  

Jatri's digital platform, which replaces manual and error-prone paper-based reporting, has resulted in a significant increase in daily sales by 15-25% per bus, previously lost to theft and leakage, he said.

"The company has processed over 100 million ticket sales since its inception in 2019," Arman added.

Sonia Bashir Kabir, the managing partner of SBK Tech and lead investor, said, "We are committed to investing in startups like Jatri that directly impact the lives of ordinary citizens."

"Mass mobility is a multibillion market opportunity that was inefficient, opaque, and largely un-bankable. This is an industry ripe for digital transformation and will lead to a cashless Smart Bangladesh. Jatri's unique value proposition has efficiently demonstrated that technology can solve problems of the masses," she further noted.