SoftBank Leads $19.5M Investment Round Into Mobility App Integrator Splyt

By Mirianna la Grasta | @mirilagrasta

Japanese SoftBank Group Corp. has led a $19.5M (£15.7M) Series B investment round into London-based startup Splyt. The B2B startup works as a global mobility network, and it aims to simplify journeys and short trips, including rides and cycles, for those people travelling abroad and finding themselves in an unfamiliar place. The company does so by integrating local mobility apps into the travel platforms, wallets and superapps used by travellers.

Thanks to this latest round, Splyt has now raised a total of $35M (£28M), which includes an earlier investment by Southeast-Asian ride-sharing giant Grab. Other investors in this funding round included the strategic investment group of American Express, American Express Ventures.

Following this raise, SoftBank, which will receive a significant share in the startup, has also announced a new business partnership. SoftBank Corp. VP and Head of the Global Business Division, Daichi Nozaki, will join Splyt’s board of directors to favour and accelerate the company’s expansion on a global scale.

“With the continued widespread adoption of smartphones, apps are becoming increasingly integral to people’s daily lives when they shop, eat and travel. The proliferation of different platforms, however, is giving rise to the need for superapps that combine multiple functions into one app,” Ken Miyauchi, President & CEO of SoftBank Corp. commented.

“Splyt is a global leader in integrating different mobility, wallet, travel and other platforms, and will enable us to promote superapps to further grow usage and our customer base.”

With a staff of around 50 people, Splyt currently operates out of London and Singapore, and it works with partner companies in over 2,000 cities and 150 countries. The technology they offer allows end-users to access multiple services on a single API. Splyt integrates ridehailing, bikesharing, scooters and airport transfers into their partners’ travel platforms, so they can keep their customers within their own app, and improve customer loyalty as well as revenue.

The startup, which was founded in 2015, has already integrated ridehailing into major platforms like Booking.com, Trip.com, Grab and Alipay, and it now plans to expand its global network of partners with several other mobility services, like bike-sharing and scooters.

“Our aim is to enable our partners to provide seamless mobility solutions to their customers, letting them feel at home anywhere in the world,” said Philipp Mintchin, co-founder and CEO of Splyt. It’s a great pleasure to collaborate with some of the best companies in the world, and to be able to welcome SoftBank Corp. and American Express Ventures as investors to Splyt.”