Masabi, Keolis and FAMOCO unveil Mass Market Mobile Ticket Validator
Next generation device at a quarter the cost of alternatives brings mobile ticket validation to a whole new market of bus operators and makes multi-door boarding a reality
Montreal and New York – October 30th, 2017: Masabi, the leader in innovative transit ticketing and fare collection, Keolis, a world leader in shared mobility and a pioneer in the development of public transport, through its digital subsidiary Kisio Digital and FAMOCO, the leader in secure professional terminals, today unveiled a mass market mobile ticket validator which dramatically changes the economics of deployment. Whereas previous validators have cost well over a thousand dollars per unit, the new device is priced in the hundreds, unlocking a whole new market segment and enabling multi-door boarding which reduces bus dwell time and increases average bus speed.
The validator delivers fast and reliable scanning of 2D barcode tickets displayed on a smartphone screen, along 
with smartcard and EMV based contactless cards, providing the agency with extra security as well as information on vehicle usage and bus location. The device is currently in pilot on the public transport network of Orléans Métropole, in collaboration with Keolis Orléans Val de Loire in France, with general rollout planned for the first half of 2018.
The device developed by the three companies combines highly specialized expertise from the global leaders in their respective fields. FAMOCO has provided the secure Android-based device, Kisio Digital the front-end customer application and Masabi is delivering the software which powers the device – based on its deployment proven Justride Inspect system. The validator is being shown by Kisio at the ITS World Congress event in Montreal Canada.
“Mobile ticketing is increasingly being seen as a must have for transport operators around the globe. In particular in the bus market, the benefits are significant including reduced cash handling and much faster vehicle boarding,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “However, to date, the cost of validators has been a significant barrier to bus operators deploying this technology. This new validator offers them a solution at a quarter the price of alternative hardware, opening up a whole new market and also making multi-door boarding a reality.”
Laurent Kocher, Executive Director of Marketing, Innovation and Services at Keolis declared: “Our partnership with Famoco & Masabi is an important milestone in our PlanBookTicket digital strategy, supported by our subsidiary Kisio Digital. The aim is to give each traveler the best route information, with multimodal route options, and the possibility of purchasing and validating tickets in a totally dematerialized way on their mobile. Thanks to Famoco and Masabi, members of our start-up partner ecosystem, we offer innovative, robust and very competitive solutions to our customers, enabling them to deploy mobile ticketing across the whole transportation network.”
###
About Masabi
Masabi deliver transit ticketing solutions that delight passengers and reduce costs for agencies and operators. Masabi’s Justride cloud-based platform unifies account-based and pre-pay ticketing into a single configurable solution, enabling agencies to deploy a future-proof specialist transit payments platform, which allows passengers to just ride. The company works in partnership with more than thirty leading transit agencies and operators in the US, Europe and around the globe, including; Boston’s MBTA, Nassau Inter-County Express, Fire Island Ferries, New Orleans RTA, LA Metrolink, Las Vegas RTC and New York’s MTA. Masabi has offices in London, New York and Boston and investors include Mastercard and Keolis.
About Keolis
Leading the way in public transport, Keolis partners with public decision makers to make shared mobility an asset for cities and their communities. Internationally recognised as the leading operator of trams and automated metros, Keolis adopts a determined innovation approach with all its partners and subsidiaries (Kisio, LeCab, EFFIA, Keolis Santé and Cykleo) to develop new forms of shared and customised mobility, and reinforce its core business across a range of transport modes including trains, buses, cars, trolleybuses, shared private hire vehicles, river shuttles, ferries, cycles, car sharing services, electric autonomous vehicles and urban cable cars. In France, Keolis is now the leader in medical transport services through the creation of Keolis Santé in July 2017 and positioned as the number two car park operator, through its subsidiary EFFIA.
The company is 70% owned by SNCF and 30% by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). Keolis employs 58,300 people in 16 countries and recorded a turnover of 5.1 billion euros in 2016. Today, over 3 billion passengers worldwide have used one of the shared mobility services offered by Keolis.
*Historically based in France, Keolis has expanded its operations in Germany, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, India, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK and Sweden.
About Kisio Digital
Kisio Digital is Keolis’ digital subsidiary and the French leader in connected mobility solutions (mobile applications, API, SDK, real-time passenger information, multimodal itinerary planner and mobile ticketing).
About FAMOCO
FAMOCO is the leader of secure professional Android devices. Established in 2010, FAMOCO targets the transportation, cashless payment, logistics and access control markets to equip mobile agents. With their range of secure and remotely managed devices, FAMOCO has developed the first Android business-ready solution that can be adapted to all needs and markets. Today FAMOCO is expanding worldwide and has deployed more than 150,000 devices in over 30 countries in just 3 years. Among its customers it counts prestigious companies such as Google, Gemalto, Alipay, Orange, ONET, Atalan and Airtel. FAMOCO has 4 offices worldwide: Paris, Brussels, New Delhi and Singapore. Find out more at www.famoco.com
Press contacts Keolis / Kisio Digital
Céline Pasqualini, Media relations director
+333 7 78 47 45 24
celine.pasqualini@keolis. com
Noémie Monti, Media relations officer
+333 6 18 76 18 69
noemie.monti@keolis.com
Press contact FAMOCO :
Ronan Bardet , Agence Influences
+333 6 80 20 70 88
r.bardet@agence – influences.fr
Press contact Masabi:
James Gooch, Head of Marketing
James.gooch@masabi.com
