Swvl, a travel technology business, is scheduled to acquire Urbvan, a shared mobility platform that offers clients in Mexico tech-enabled transportation services.
Swvl’s acquisition of Urbvan, which integrates mobility patterns with a shared vehicle aggregator platform, “provides an excellent opportunity to accelerate Swvl’s mission to provide safer, faster, smarter, and more affordable mass transportation for everyone, no matter where they live,” the company said in a press release.
The terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, were not disclosed. Swvl claims the purchase strengthens its foundation for future expansion in Latin America, expanding its reach to more than 135 locations across 20 countries.
Urban, which was founded in 2016, works in 18 Mexican cities, providing solutions for urban routes, interstate routes, private organizations, and private on-demand needs.
“Urbvan was built on the same ideas as Swvl: to overcome the inefficiencies observed in traditional mass transit in many regions of the world,” Swvl’s creator and CEO, Mostafa Kandil, stated in a news release.
Swvl’s footprint in Mexico, suite of Transport-as-a-Service (TaaS) offerings, and relationships with local government, he says, reinforce the company’s mission to provide safer and more reliable mobility solutions “required for vulnerable people who live in densely populated, challenging marketplace with vast geographies.”
The deal comes only weeks after Swvl said it was cutting off 32% of its workforce, affecting 427 people, in order to achieve profitability.
“Such reductions will focus on tasks that have been automated as a result of investments in the Business’s engineering, product, and support activities,” the company announced on May 31. “Swvl intends to give monetary, non-monetary, and job placement assistance to help certain of its workers move to new jobs.”
Swvl has made a number of acquisitions this year, including smart bus platform Zeelo and B2B and TaaS mobility platform Volt Lines, both in April.
