Backers including top mobility investor UP.Partners, Maniv Mobility, Toyota Ventures, Tuesday Capital, Lowercase, EXPA support the company’s quest to address intercity mobility in a modern way through technology & data driven optimization, and an elevated passenger experience.
HOUSTON, June 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Kolors, a technology and data-driven intercity bus network company, today announced $26 million in funding including a $20 million Series A financing round led by UP.Partners with participation from Toyota Ventures, Maniv Mobility, K5 Global, Mazapil, alongside existing investors Tuesday Capital, Garret Camp’s Expa, Chris Sacca’s Lowercase, Moving Capital, MVG, Brainstorm Ventures, Bling Capital and Amplifica. The funding will further accelerate expansion in Mexico, expand to new Latin American markets and enable cross-border US travel.
Kolors through its “smart-bus-platform”; a combination of airline and ridesharing style technology, runs and optimizes its intercity bus network while delivering the best passenger experience through the introduction of bus attendants superpowered by technology.
“Kolors is redefining the experience of intercity travel. We are thrilled to see Kolors advancing in Mexico and bringing its phenomenal service to other parts of Latin America in the coming months this year,” said Ally Warson, Partner, UP.Partners. of UP.Partners, “Kolors is thinking about the next phase for intercity bus travel and intends to design an ecosystem that prioritizes the passenger while providing more profitable and climate-friendly outcomes for bus operators.”
Kolors doesn’t own any vehicles, but they partner with small and medium-sized bus operators where the operator is only responsible for driving the bus and Kolors does everything else (route optimization, virtual stops, scheduling, pricing, marketing, sales, customer service, etc) through its tech, data and customer experience layer.
Kolors will also continue the push toward cleaner energies within the intercity bus industry. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 85% of transportation sector emissions are related to the surface transportation system. The need for an effective strategy and investment to reduce gas emissions must improve the fuel economy and reduce carbon content. Kolors strives for a future of fleet electrification to reduce the dependency on diesel fuel within the industry.
“Kolors is disrupting a mode of transportation that’s often overlooked but relied upon by billions of people worldwide,” said Jim Adler, Founding Managing Director of Toyota Ventures. “There’s a huge opportunity to advance intercity bus travel with higher efficiency, cleaner energy , and superior passenger experience. Kolors is at the forefront of this transformation.”
Kolors benefits both bus partners and passengers. Bus partners de-risk their operations and focus on what they do best while increasing their profitability, while passengers experience the first-of-its-kind smart bus platform allowing for optimized routes, safety, virtual stops in shopping malls and hotels, scheduling, and pricing. Passengers are part of the Kolors On-Board Ambassadors Program offering the best passenger experience on every single ride. This partnership model with small and medium-size bus operators (often individually owned and maintained) allows Kolors to focus on the tech, data, and customer experience to operate its ecosystem as an airline-on-wheels.
“We have followed Kolors since the beginning, and considering they started at the height of the pandemic, the growth they’ve had is astounding. Transporting millions of passengers in such a short period of time speaks volumes about their tenacity and potential as a team and company, said Jake Wieseneck, Principal at Maniv Mobility.
Kolors provides a modern solution to intercity bus transportation and unlocks the potential for generating new solutions in mobility and technology like developing a proprietary method to offer reliable onboard WI-FI services, the sale of snacks and drinks, and soon-enough a completely redesigned in-cabin experience.
“As a third-generation bus operator, I know intercity bus travel is the lifeblood of LATAM,” said Rodrigo Martínez, Founder and CEO of Kolors. “The opportunity to provide our passengers with an elevated bus platform will bring a better and affordable travel experience. Our buses run on data and our learnings have already enabled us to devise an effective strategy to address and reduce emissions across the global intercity transportation industry.”
For more information on Kolors and its innovative solutions, visit: www.ridekolors.com
About Kolors
Founded in 2020 by experienced mobility entrepreneurs Rodrigo Martinez and Anca Gardea, Kolors is revolutionizing the intercity bus industry through its innovative first-of-its-kind smart-bus-platform. Kolors currently transports millions of passengers and is supported by some of the leading mobility investors around the world.
For more information, visit www.ridekolors.com or get in touch: [email protected]
About UP.Partners
Transportation is the underlying fabric of society. UP.Partners invests in the pioneering entrepreneurs who are creating the key enabling technologies that help move people and goods cleaner, faster, safer, and more efficiently in a multi-dimensional world. UP.Partners with some of the world’s most innovative investors and companies including Alaska Airlines, ARK Invest, and Woven Capital, the investment arm of Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet Group. UP.Summit convenes the mobility community’s brightest minds each year to help humanity go UP. Together, the UP community is transforming the moving world. For more information, visit UP.Partners or follow on Twitter @UpPartnersVC or LinkedIn.
SOURCE Kolors
