Intel to buy Moovit

Graphic Source: Moovit.

TechCrunch is reporting that microprocessor giant Intel is finalizing a deal to acquire transportation company Moovit for $1 billion. Moovit’s app has over 800 million users and is one of our favourites for navigating a new city. Why is a computer chip manufacturer buying a transportation map company? It’s all about data.

More than just Maps

While the general public may only recognize Moovit for their popular mobile and desktop app, their business goes far beyond route finding. Moovit offers MaaS or “Mobility as a Service” solutions that provide customers with vast amounts of data. What kind of data? Because the Moovit app is keeping track of the trips of each one of those 800 million users, the company is able to see reports like:

• Where are travellers starting and ending their journey?

• What modes of transportation do they use? Bus, subway, ride share, walk, bicycle, car?

• Which public transportation routes or lines are most popular? Which ones are over congested?

• Which areas are the biggest transfer hubs?

• Real time location data for buses.

You can imagine how a public transportation operator or city planner might find this information valuable. Even Uber gets their live public transportation route data from Moovit. Moovit is the backbone of all transportation data.

What does this have to do with Intel?

So to ask a follow up to our earlier question: Why does a computer chip manufacturer care about transportation data? Intel is making (and has made) big moves into the autonomous driving space. In 2017, Intel acquired Mobileye, a company that develops sensors, cameras and other mapping tech for autonomous vehicles. With the self-driving future on the horizon, Intel wants to position themselves as the hardware and software provider for the entire autonomous driving industry. Having real time traffic and transportation data courtesy of this Moovit acquisition can compliment their offerings substantially.

What does this mean for the Moovit app?

Sometimes when companies acquire other products or services, the original offering goes away, or gets rolled into some other solution. I don’t think the Moovit app is going anywhere. It is the data source with 800 million inputs (users) that is powering this entire company. It is in Intel’s best interest to keep the Moovit app running and have it continue to collect the data they need.