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Kirsh buys into GoMetro

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 14 Oct 2016
GoMetro is a great strategic acquisition, says Willian Kirsh, founder and CEO of Tritech Media.
GoMetro is a great strategic acquisition, says Willian Kirsh, founder and CEO of Tritech Media.

Hot on the heels of the acquisition of a 35% stake in Thesl last week, serial entrepreneur William Kirsh has announced the acquisition of a 20% interest in social transit app and Web site, GoMetro, for an undisclosed amount.

Speaking to ITWeb yesterday, Kirsh, who is founder and CEO of Tritech Media, said two more acquisition deals are set to be concluded before the end of the year.

The balance of shares in GoMetro are held by 4Decades Capital, backed by former RMB CEO Mike Pfaff, and AngelHub Ventures, backed by former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan. Kirsh will join the board of GoMetro.

The Kirsh family is one of the wealthiest in SA with a fortune valued at $6.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

GoMetro's proprietary Flexible Mobility Platform simplifies transport operations on public and semi-public transport services within a specific geographic footprint.

The start-up was founded by Justin Coetzee, who says the idea to start the company came to him in 2011. "I was stuck at Bellville Train Station in Cape Town. I did not have any information about where the train was. I was frustrated that I didn't know what time I was going to get to work. Since 2011, we have been growing our value proposition and user base in the cities."

He says the company has forged strong working relationships with city governments across SA to modernise and digitise public transport networks and bring minibus taxis into the formal transport market through its GoMetro Pro big data mapping platform for municipal transport management.

"We are looking at reaching the 19 million commuters on South Africa's roads network," says Coetzee.

"Every morning, someone has to commute to work or school, and that's the audience that we are trying to reach on the go. The technology that we developed provides enormous value to municipalities and cities to operate their transport systems much more intelligently and much more proactively as well as providing a good customer experience."

He points out that GoMetro has partnerships with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), the City of Rustenburg, and the University of Pretoria, enabling them, through a mobile app and mapping technology, to provide targeted commuter information.

"Through this, they will be able to know, for example, that their train will be late, or how much their bus fare is."

Coetzee believes municipal investment in this core data infrastructure would allow a specific node like Sandton to fight congestion by having navigation, traffic alerts, train timetables, bus stop location, ride-hailing, ride-sharing and cycling options all in one app. By partnering with local businesses and brands, the app further provides relevant and valuable offers to commuters on their way to work or home, he adds.

GoMetro's mobile transport information and ticketing technology has been used in some 200 000 trips across SA with around two million unique browsers to date, Coetzee adds.

He points out that brands such as MTN, Burger King, Lunchbar, African Bank, Shoprite and FNB have all used GoMetro's location-based advertising engine to reach commuters in trains, buses and minibus taxis, and "experienced up to a four-fold increase in campaign performance when using GoMetro's location and movement-aware advertising engine".

"This is such a great strategic acquisition for our group. Our aim is to cover where the consumers are in their daily life, and then to position precise and relevant brand advertising and communications based on their location," says Kirsh.

"Through our recent acquisitions of Ionizr, ProximityID and Geospatial Data Solutions, incorporating satellite-enabled Spatialedge, we have built an extremely strong presence in and around shopping centres. GoMetro now gives us the opportunity to cover the vast majority of consumers across South Africa through their commuting experience. Our solution capability for brands to precisely engage with consumers is now unparalleled in South Africa.

"GoMetro's technology is truly world-class and, with this pedigree, the objective is to expand into other emerging markets, with Nairobi currently being mapped."

The start-up is now working with Prasa on the national rail network, as well as with several bus companies in SA to launch mobile ticketing and passenger information services for each service. GoMetro is also engaged in mapping taxi networks in Cape Town, East London, Mbombela, Pretoria and Rustenburg in preparation for mobile payments for South Africa's 100 000 minibus taxis - a R10 billion industry, say Coetzee.

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