Mobility management platform Passport, founded in 2010 and based in Charlotte, North Carolina, helps cities with parking solutions, but the company’s recently announced $65 million Series D funding round shows that Passport is zooming into 2020 with no signs of slowing down.
With Rho Capital Partners, H.I.G. Growth Parthers and ThornTree Capital Partners all participating in the latest round, Passport plans to add even more cities, universities and agencies to its list of clients seeking digital coordination and real-time, data-based management of curb and street space. The enterprise software is already currently being used by major global cities like Chicago, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, and southern cities like Austin and Atlanta.
Designed as “a payment system at its core,” according to CEO Bob Youakim, the mobile-based payment platform has evolved over the years in order to meet the operational needs of government entities and universities, in terms of transportation and mobility.
“We have been in the fortunate position for our past two rounds of funding that we have had many interested investors,” Youakim says. “In this position, we were able to focus on choosing partners that are the right cultural fit and can help us invest in new markets, look at strategic acquisitions, scale and grow our business and connect with the right people to accelerate growth.”
Youakim also feels fortunate to be in the southeast at a time when investors are paying more attention than ever, making it possible for a company like Passport to exist in North Carolina, as opposed to Silicon Valley. With the additional capital, he says the company will invest further into the platform to make mobility easier for cities to manage from a single hub.
“We’ll be expanding the mobility ecosystem by removing the complexity of transportation payments and making it easier to manage any number of parking payment providers. In doing so, we’re creating an open ecosystem where any entity can facilitate digital parking payments and where mobility is seamless,” Youakim says.
Passport works by using APIs to allow users to make payments through various native experiences, including apps, devices, mapping services and connected vehicles. By enabling payments from applications a user already has — Passport currently has 100+ app integrations, including lifestyle apps that help users do things like ordering morning coffee — and providing reporting tools for clients, it can claim to be convenient for clients and users alike, simultaneously simplifying and expanding the realm of mobility payments.
The new infusion of capital is also a clear sign of confidence from investors. From parking to enforcement, permits, transit, and micro-mobility, Passport is already processing more than 100 million curbside transactions annually, exceeding $1.5 billion in processed payments to date.
“We’ve been on a trajectory of growth for nearly a decade,” says Youakim. “In the past three years, we’ve seen more than 500 percent revenue growth. Since 2018, we’ve acquired two companies (NuPark and Complus Data Innovations) and we’ve grown our headcount to more than 300 employees.”
This upward trajectory puts Passport on a path to continued acceleration as it finds new clients and partners for its platform. And Youakim sounds like he’s not going to stop until Passport is in everyone’s hands, no matter where you find yourself in the world.
“As we look to 2020 and beyond,” he says, “we are poised for continued growth across our client base, revenue and employees.”
