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Masabi

Fare payments platform for public transit systems

201-500 employees
  • B2B
  • Transport
  • Ticketing
  • Payments
  • Mobility
  • SaaS
  • Mobile
London (HQ), United Kingdom, 37 Bevenden St, Hoxton

Company mission

To drive the fare payment revolution, powering the journeys of millions all over the world.

Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

12% employee growth in 12 months

Otta's take

Sam Franklin headshot

Sam Franklin

CEO of Otta

Masabi is developing a SaaS-based fare collection and ticketing platform that allows commuters to buy and present tickets for public transport on their mobile phones or by tapping a bank card. Replacing ticket booths, vending machines and on-board points of sale, Masabi presents a convenient and modern alternative for public transport providers without the hefty set-up fees of an in-house solution.

Competition has recently been heating up in the SaaS for mobility services sector, and Masabi now face competition in the likes of Transloc, Passport and SilverRail Technologies. However, Masabi stands out with the flexibility of its platform and its ease of implementation (just over two weeks in the case of Nikko Kotsu Bus in Japan, compared to the months it can take for competing solutions).

Masabi now has deployments with over 150 transit agencies in 9 countries, with millions of passengers using its fare and ticketing system each year. It is continuing to expand its customer base, most recently deploying its platform with Eau Claire Transit and the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company. As more transit companies switch from legacy systems to modern ticketing solutions, Masabi is well poised for future success.

Benefits

  • Enhanced parental leave

Company values

  • We Put People First- We strive to create a caring, compassionate and collaborative environment in which all members of the Masabi team can flourish
  • We are One Global Team - We will always work as one single team
  • We are Proudly Different- We are committed to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion within the foundations of our business, fostering a strong sense of belonging and ensuring that we become more diverse over time
  • We Debate Passionately and Respectfully- It’s important that we approach these debates with respect and kindness, always assuming positive intent in others and remaining mindful of our shared common purpose: making it easier for our customers to access public transit. We never make it personal
  • We Push Forward Together- Before making difficult and complex decisions, we analyse the options thoroughly, but when we make a decision, we accept the outcome collectively and push forward, together

Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)

Apr 2019

$20m

SERIES C

Dec 2015

$12m

SERIES B

$40.8m

Total funding

This company has top investors

Founders

Ed Howson

(Co-Founder)

Previously Senior Account Manager at AxiCom, Founder and Managing Partner at Temono Communications since 2005.

Tom Godber

(Co-Founder)

Previously Developer at Accenture & at Trilogy Software, Non Exec Director at Pinga and ex-CPO at Masabi since the establishment of the company. They are a Mentor for Black Valley since October 2021.

Ben Whitaker

(Evangelist, Co-Founder)

Previously a security expert and engineer, Ben has helped define the UK rail mobile ticketing standard and is now the company’s product evangelist, focusing primarily on innovation.

People progressing

From the moment I stepped into Masabi in 2019, I was welcomed into a culture of innovation, trust, and genuine care.

Since 2020 started as a Front end Developer, Senior Front end Developer in 2021 and since 2022 he has progressed to Engineering Manager. Brilliant career progression.

Diversity & Inclusion at Masabi

John Scrooby headshot

John Scrooby (Chief People Officer)

  • We believe employers play an important role in the physical and mental wellbeing of their teams, not just because we do our best work in a healthy working environment, but because it’s the right thing to do
  • We actively encourage all people to work with us, of all gender identity, sex, or sexual orientations, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. All religious beliefs are welcomed. Whatever age you are, disability you may have, no matter your marital status, or parental status, you’ll find you are both welcome and supported here
  • Our team is genuinely diverse. It’s not a box-ticking game to us. It’s part of who we are as a company
  • All employees receive company-wide inclusion training, we run unconscious bias training for interviewers and managers. We run level-based pay reviews to remove bias. We’ve developed menopause guidance. We run diversity campaigns in recruitment to ensure diverse pipelines and we actively monitor for bias is recruitment decisions

Endorsements

All

Opportunities to learn (1)

Meaningful work (1)

Supportive management (1)

Colleagues at all different levels really believe in Masabi's mission - we're excited to make using public transit easier for people from all backgrounds. For some of our customers, using Justride means that bus riders don't need to measure out exact change every time they want to take a journey, which is pretty great.

Software Engineering

Meaningful work

Mar 2023

Since joining Masabi I've moved teams and been able to learn a few different tech stacks - management is very open to this. We're doing things for the first time a lot, and teams have autonomy to also learn through trying things (not everything works, which is OK!). The learning budget gives us opportunities to take courses and go to conferences too.

Software Engineering

Opportunities to learn

Mar 2023

My manager consistently follows up on issues I raise (even really minor things), makes time for 121 discussions, and genuinely cares about how I'm doing as a person. It feels like this attitude goes up the chain to senior management.

Software Engineering

Supportive management

Mar 2023

Masabi 1