BestMile Seed Round Reaches $5.5M with the Addition of $2M from Partech Ventures, Serena Capital and Airbus Ventures, Company Also Appoints a New Chief Technology Officer.

SAN FRANCISCO & LAUSANNE, Switzerland–(BUSINESS WIRE)– BestMile, a pioneer provider of the first fleet automation platform allowing for the intelligent operation and optimization of autonomous vehicle fleets, announces the addition of Partech Venture, Serena Capital and Airbus Venture to its capital to further pursue its vision for autonomous and shared mobility. The additional funds will be used to accelerate the deployment of BestMile’s platform internationally and strengthen its technology, sales and marketing resources across Europe and the United States. Reza Malekzadeh and Jean-Baptiste Dumont, General Partners at Partech Venture and Serena Capital respectively, are also joining BestMile’s Board of Directors to bring their estimable insights and experience as the company continues its rapid growth.

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“The additional funding will help us further our goal of delivering the best mobility management platform to a fast-growing industry,” said Raphael Gindrat, CEO and co-founder of BestMile. “We are thrilled to have new partners, who share our vision, joining us in the journey and contributing their unique experiences to our mission.”

In parallel, a new Chief Technology Officer has joined BestMile’s executive team to lead the company’s engineering efforts. Zhao Lu has worked in research and development for large organizations like IBM as well as for Silicon Valley’s startups. Most importantly, he led the development and deployment of one of the world’s leading taxi platform, Easy Taxi, available in 30 countries and used by more than 20 million people.

BestMile’s ongoing growth is driven by a strong commitment to empowers mobility providers to deliver efficient, flexible and sustainable services. Its platform enables autonomous vehicles to work together as a fleet and allows mobility providers to deploy, operate and scale autonomous mobility services.

Since its launch in 2014, BestMile has built a proven track record as the leading company for fleet automation in the autonomous mobility industry with customers and partners such as PostBus, Switzerland’s largest provider of road public transportation, Local Motors, Trapeze and GoMentum Station, US largest testing ground for autonomous vehicles. BestMile was the first company to offer on-demand autonomous mobility services and enables the first instances in which electric autonomous shuttles are circulating through a city center, on both pedestrian areas and open roads, and servicing the public on a daily basis.

While most players in the industry have a vehicle centric approach, the benefits of autonomous mobility don’t lie in autonomous vehicles themselves, but in what they can offer when they’re operated and managed collectively in an integrated ecosystem such as the one enabled by BestMile.

“Fleet management is rapidly becoming essential to optimizing the mobility system and we are convinced by BestMile’s approach focusing on building an ecosystem and remaining vehicle agnostic,” said Matthieu Repellin, Investment Partner at Airbus Ventures. “We’re delighted to co-invest with funds such as Partech Ventures and Serena Capital to help accelerate BestMile’s growth as it brings massive value to its market”.

“We’re thrilled to back such a strategic company for the whole Autonomous Vehicles industry”, said Jean-Baptiste Dumont, General Partner at Serena Capital. “BestMile is the missing link between manufacturers and mobility providers, allowing them to scale the deployment of their fleets by using a centralized platform connecting vehicles and coordinating and optimizing journeys”.

The company’s work has recently received the New Product Innovation Award from analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan. As stated in the Award write-up: “Autonomous vehicles are seen as the future of the mobility industry and the company provides the strategic link between autonomous vehicle fleet owners and passengers. Frost & Sullivan firmly believes that with its robust expansion plans along with a significant technological lead and comprehensive understanding of market mobility needs of developed and emerging markets, BestMile will be instrumental in building a new mobility paradigm”.

“Autonomous vehicles are no longer the realm of science fiction; they are already on the roads and represent one of the biggest changes to mobility,” said Reza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech Ventures. “BestMile delivers an enabling platform that is essential for the deployment of this industry”.

About BestMile

BestMile is a technology company providing distributed and highly scalable cloud technology leveraging the full potential of autonomous vehicles to tackle global mobility challenges. With offices in San Francisco (USA), Lausanne (Switzerland) and London (UK), BestMile commercializes the first fleet automation platform allowing for the intelligent operation and optimization of autonomous vehicle fleets, regardless of their brand or type and managing both fixed-route and on-demand service types.

Since its creation in 2014, BestMile built a proven track record as the leading company for fleet automation in the autonomous mobility industry. BestMile was the first company to offer on-demand autonomous mobility services and is now enabling the first instance in which electric autonomous shuttles are circulating through a city center on both pedestrian areas and open roads, and servicing the public on a daily basis.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170413005082/en/

BestMile

Maud SIMON, +41 78 956 93 46

maud.simon@bestmile.com

http://www.bestmile.com/

Source: BestMile