RideScout, an Austin-based startup that lets people find the best transportation options, just got acquired by Moovel, the parent company of Car2go.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Today, just three years after the company was founded, I am proud to announce that RideScout has been acquired by car2go North America, a Daimler brand,” Joseph Kopser, the company’s founder and CEO, wrote in an email announcing the acquisition.
Moovel, formerly known as Daimler Mobility Services, also acquired Hamburg-based mytaxi, according to a news release.
“We are very pleased to welcome RideScout and mytaxi as new members of the moovel family”, Robert Henrich, CEO at moovel GmbH, said in a news release. “The acquisition of RideScout and Intelligent Apps pushes our global strategy a significant step forward. We are investing further in the development and growth of urban mobility in North America, Germany and other parts of the world. Our mutual objectives are the expansion of our leadership role on the international market and to continue our pioneering efforts to radically simplify the future of mobility.”
“When we launched the app November of 2013, I thought that day might be the best of our company’s history, but it was only the start of things to come,” Kopser wrote. “We continued to build a superstar team and, subsequently, we launched RideScout in 69 North American cities.”
RideScout will operate as a subsidiary of Car2go North America and Kopser and Craig Cummings, Ridescout’s chief strategy officer, will continue to manage the business, according to Moovel, based in Stuttgart, Germany. The company’s mobile phone app lets consumers search and compare aggregated ground transportation options to find the best one.
The partnership with Car2go will let RideScout “realize our vision and build a better, stronger product for our users and our customers. Very soon, you can expect an improved RideScout app experience and a B2B solution that helps makes cities smarter,” Kopser wrote.
RideScout, which bills itself as “the Kayak of ground transportation” has deep roots in Austin. The company won the Austin Technology Council’s Startup Showdown in 2013. It also started out in the Austin Technology Incubator. The company has raised more than $1 million in funding. Kopser and Cummings are both U.S. Army Veterans. Kopser thought up the idea for RideScout while commuting to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He wanted a tool to show him his best options for getting to work. When he couldn’t find one, he decided to create it along with co-founder Cummings.