We’re very excited to share the news that Renewal4 portfolio company Swiftly has received a strategic investment from Cove Hill Partners. This is an incredible outcome for one of our highest impact companies in Renewal4 (2019) and we are so thrilled for the Swiftly team!
Background
We first met the company in 2018 through an introduction from Elemental Impact (our coinvestors in Swiftly, Opus One Solutions, and SuperCircle). We were immediately struck by the calibre of the founding team. Jonathan Simkin, Will Dayton, Mike and Meredith Bordoni‘s track record, consistent execution, product vision, and most importantly, impact focus stood out as exceptional.
At the time, the company had a small but rapidly growing list of municipal customers who relied on Swiftly for accurate bus arrival time predictions. Transit agencies have long struggled to provide riders with accurate estimates of arrival and trip time, and Swiftly quickly became the category leader in arrival predictions. However, the company had a much broader vision to become the end-to-end operating system for public transit agencies, improving system reliability and efficiency while providing transit riders a seamless app-based experience akin to taking an Uber.
This was the vision we invested behind when we co-led the company’s Series A alongside Aster Capital, Via ID and Wind Capital in 2019. Over the past six years, the company has expanded across the agency from route management; to real-time vehicle management and operations; to passenger analytics. Swiftly is now the market leader in transit system analytics and operations, powering nearly 200 agencies across the globe, and over 2 billion transit trips a year.
Cove Hill is going to be a fantastic partner for Swiftly as they continue scaling their business and impact. We’re amazed at everything Swiftly has accomplished over the past six years, and thrilled to see the company’s mission carried forward.
Impact investing in the public sector
Swiftly is our fourth successful outcome within our government technologies thematic focus area. We have long believed that government, public agencies and municipal utilities play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis and driving broad access to climate solutions across all levels of society. While not everybody can afford an EV, a new heat pump, or plant-based meat alternatives, everybody can take the bus. And yet, local governments and public agencies more often than not operate this shared infrastructure with antiquated technology solutions – a patch work of legacy technology systems that incur huge annual maintenance and inefficiency costs on these critical public goods.
At the same time, government-facing technology solutions are actively avoided by many venture investors due to “long sales cycles” and a relative lack of flash and hype compared to nascent technologies like fusion or direct air capture. As a result, government facing technology solutions receive less than 2% of technology venture funding, despite comprising close to 30% of global enterprise technology spend. We have embraced this trillion dollar opportunity as one of our core focus areas and have had multiple successful outcomes including Aquatic Informatics (water infrastructure), Miovision (traffic infrastructure), Opus One Solutions (grid infrastructure), and now Swiftly.
There is a perception that government technology is too slow for venture, but with the right team and the right product, it’s possible to scale high growth, high impact technology solutions that deliver critical sustainability and climate solutions for the public good. This transaction represents one of the top venture backed outcomes in climate tech since the market liquidity heights of 2021.
It has been such a privilege to work with such an incredibly talented team and we feel so fortunate to have been part of Swiftly’s journey!