Blockchain & Impact Investors Jump on the Iomob Train
We incorporated Iomob in 2018 to develop a decentralized Internet of Mobility protocol. We raised initial funding from blockchain investors, BlockAsset and Centrality. Yet blockchain tech was not ready for scaling such solutions we had envisioned, the crypto markets tanked, and legacy transport operators were reticent to embrace such new technology, let alone tokenization models.
2018–2020 Building an MVP, iterating building a Scalable Commercial Platform
So we decided to focus on building a centralized tech stack to support growing demand for enterprise software solutions for mobility on demand and mobility as a service. We developed an MVP which we first deployed with Renfe, the Spanish rail operator. The MVP allowed trial users to travel door to door between Barcelona and Madrid. Instead of inserting station names, the user could enter their origin (eg. home) and destination address (e.g. hotel) and receive a range of door-to-door options. This was not just about journey planning but rather allowing a rail passenger to have a truly seamless door-to-door journey inside the Renfe app. We integrated taxis and ridehailing services (such as Cabify), micromobility (e.g. scooters) and public transit among other services. It worked!
But we had a lot of work to do to build a decoupled middleware solution that could scale with enterprise customers, so we went about building that. We raised further funding from mobility investors (e.g. B4Motion) and then at the end of 2020, from Creas, an impact investment fund in Spain who was drawn to our vision of accelerating modal shift towards more sustainable and shared mobility solutions.
2021–2022 Commercializing Iomob and Growing the Ecosystem
In 2021, the growing Iomob team continued to refine the core technology and to recruit and integrate a range of mobility service providers including: Tier, Voi, Bolt and Via among others. We started documenting the tech to enable a growing number of system integration partners to leverage it for their enterprise customers.
Large enterprise customers, such as London North Eastern Railway in the UK and Brightline Trains embraced the USPs of Iomob and chose our solution to deploy with the support of their systems integrators. Early in 2022, these will be deployed commercially exposing our tech to millions of users.
2022 Decentralization, Tokenization and Scaling
As we begin to move beyond the pandemic, which of course hurt the transportation industry in major ways, Iomob is now returning to our roots. We will be embracing progessive decentralization and tokenize the Internet of Mobility.
The vision we had from day one: A global Internet of Mobility protocol which can enable users of any interface connected to the IoM to discover, route, book and pay for any mobility service connected to the IoM requires a commitment to decentralization.
Thankfully, not only have our current investors embraced this vision, including Creas who is doubling down on their investment in Iomob, but a new group of blockchain investors have jumped aboard the Iomob train. We are excited to announce the current round is being led by True Global Ventures, a decentralized global network of partners who only invest in blockchain startups with serial entrepreneurial founders. Along with TGV and Creas, A100X, a boutique impact-focused blockchain fund from the US and Global Blockchain Ventures have also joined in.
We are proud at Iomob to be uniting impact investment, blockchain and mobility funds in our journey to create the global Internet of Mobility protocol.
Stay tuned for much more regarding our progressive decentralization and tokenization journey which will accelerate in 2022 on the heels of this current funding.
About the Author
Boyd Cohen is the CEO and Co-founder of Iomob, a global mobility on demand platform for enterprise. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado in 2001, he spent the past two decades focused on accelerating the path to a low-carbon sustainable economy. This included publishing 3 books, multiple peer reviewed articles and starting a handful of ventures in the smart cities and sustainability arena. At Iomob, Boyd leads a growing team of mobility and technology experts to deploy the world’s first Mobility on Demand platform for enterprise. Early clients have spanned multiple continents including Europe, Asia and North America.
