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Transit software startup Via confidentially files for an IPO

Via, the transit software startup that garnered attention for its consumer-facing on-demand shuttle service, said it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering.

Via has been batting around plans for an IPO for years. The company filed confidentially for an IPO in 2021, but never took the next official and regulatory steps to enter the public markets. Now, the company says it’s ready. Its status as a confidential filing, however, leaves lots of missing details, including the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

When Via launched in 2012, there was little interest from cities in the software platform, co-founder and CEO Daniel Ramot told TechCrunch in an interview several years ago. The company initially used consumer-facing Via-branded shuttles that users could hail. Over time, and using the massive amounts of data it collected through these services, Via improved its dynamic, on-demand routing algorithm, which uses real-time data to route shuttles to where they’re needed most.

Today, Via provides the on-demand transit software for more than 650 cities in 30 countries, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Miami, and London. It also serves numerous small and medium-sized cities like Arlington, Texas and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Via last raised funds from private markets in 2023 with a $110 million funding round that pushed its valuation up to $3.5 billion. Via has raised a total of $1 billion to date from a long list of investors that includes BlackRock, Exor, Janus Henderson, Macquarie Capital, Mori Building, Shell, and 83North.