In a recent release, Bestmile, a Fleet Orchestration Platform used to plan, manage, and optimize autonomous and human-driven vehicle fleets, announced it has raised $16.5 million in a Series B round and has strengthened its leadership to accelerate its growth. The round is led by two U.S. firms, Blue Lagoon Capital and TransLink Capital, with the participation of Series A investors Road Ventures, Partech, Groupe ADP, Airbus Ventures, Serena and others.
Blue Lagoon Capital, based in Washington DC, is a venture capital firm that invests in a limited number of companies where its principals actively lend their operational expertise. Translink Capital in Palo Alto invests in expansion stage technology startups and helps them develop strategic partnerships in Asia. Translink’s investment is from its strategic funds with both SOMPO, one of the largest Japanese insurance company, and Japan Airlines.
Blue Lagoon partners, Rodney Rogers and Kevin Reid, have joined the Bestmile board, with Rogers serving as Chairman.
“The market has spoken by embracing fleet orchestration technology as critical for real-world mobility service performance,” said Rogers. “This space is currently experiencing significant growth and I am very excited to play a role in the success of Bestmile, a technology I feel is the most advanced, intelligent and comprehensive fleet orchestration platform available today.”
Rogers and Reid, both seasoned technology operators, co-founded enterprise cloud services company Virtustream in 2009 which was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2015 for $1.2 billion and is now part of Dell Technologies.
“Bestmile has pioneered the integration of human-driven and autonomous vehicles, with a richly enabled full services platform that permits fleet operators to practically optimize their assets across all modes of transport. At Airbus Ventures we see Bestmile as a key enabler for Urban Air Mobility, with an even brighter future with the proven team of Rogers and Reid on board,” said Thomas d'Halluin, Managing Partner, Airbus Ventures.
Bestmile’s platform has supported fleets on three continents since 2014, including the first autonomous fleets to operate on city streets as part of public transport networks. The platform is vehicle agnostic, can manage autonomous and human-driven vehicles, supports on-demand and time-based services, integrates with multiple transport modes, and provides end-to-end applications for travelers, drivers, and operators.
Ken Briodagh is a storyteller, writer and editor with about two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.Edited by
Ken Briodagh
