Via Bets on Connected Transit as It Heads to IPO

The modernization of transportation isn’t just about the shiny new buses or autonomous pilot.

The transformation of public systems that ferry millions of individuals across towns and cities lies with the plumbing that fuses digital scheduling with fare payments, letting agencies knit together subsidies, eligibility checks and rider wallets in one flow.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “How the World Does Digital” found that more than 14% of individuals used a local travel app at least weekly. That equates to more than 4 “activity days” per month, less than video streaming (at more than 15 days) but ahead of time spent on online grocery shopping or, say, online dating.

Apps, then, have been weaving their way into the daily commute using buses, vans and shuttles, and so have digital wallets and digital transactions.

Via Transportation’s Friday (Aug. 15) prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public laid out that back-office shift in detail.

In the filing, the company pitched a unified stack, including planning tools, real-time dispatch and call center support, as well as passenger apps where people can plan, book and pay. It also sells payment processing as a tech-enabled service alongside fleet and driver management, signaling that fare collection is moving from stand-alone hardware to software decisions embedded in the trip itself.

Citymapper, Via’s consumer app, is positioned as a digital front door. It’s a journey planner used by millions of travelers with arrival and departure estimates that are about 15% more accurate than industry norms, per the filing.

In traditional systems, fare media, validators and clearing ran on islands, separate from paratransit reservations, school bus rosters or micro-transit dispatch. Via’s filing described agencies using a single, cloud platform to set eligibility, route trips across modes, and then settle the fare—whether via a credit card, digital wallet or voucher—without forcing riders or staff to hop between systems.

For operators, bundling leads to efficiency. One Florida agency that used Via to reconfigure fleet procurement and operations reported about a 50% reduction in average cost per ride, according to the filing.

Three data points in the filing framed the stakes for payments-plus-scheduling:

• Via pegs global public-transport technology spend at $545 billion, growing about 5% annually. Within its core geographies, the company sizes an $82 billion serviceable market across North America and Western Europe, with a broader $250 billion total addressable market when you include large bus networks and ticketing.
• Revenue rose from $248.9 million in 2023 to $337.6 million in 2024. For the six months ended June 30, 2025, revenue was $205.8 million. Platform revenue accounted for 95% of 2023 revenue, 98% in 2024 and 100% in the first half of 2025, underscoring the pivot away from legacy marketplace operations.
• Agencies are using digital planning and digital scheduling to replace underperforming routes with on-demand service. Passenger tools, eligibility and payment processing live in the same stack. Those efficiency gains can be shared with riders through fare policy (capping, passes and means-tested discounts) without new hardware rollouts.

The read-across for the connected economy is that transit is becoming a programmable surface, where a ride is discoverable in a consumer app, priced and subsidized dynamically, auditable for regulators, and payable across cards, wallets and public benefits.

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