SWVL Continues Global Expansion With Acquisition of German Startup

Egyptian-born, UAE-headquartered startup, SWVL, has continued its march around the globe, after announcing that it has completed the acquisition of German mobility startup, door2door for an undisclosed sum. Based in Berlin, door2door is a mobility as a service (MaaS) software platform that can be seamlessly integrated into any existing transit system. Impressively, it operates across 10 European countries and holds 24% market share in Germany.

The acquisition is the third by SWVL, after Argentina-based Latin American carpooling startup, Viapool, and Spanish on-demand shuttle booking platform, Shotl, both in 2021. Indeed, acquisitions have been front-and-centre of SWVL’s expansion plans, as it looks to become a leading global mass transit player, with synergies on offerings, geography, partnerships and products. SWVL’s footprint now extends to  20 countries across four continents and the deal with door2door potentially opens that up to an additional 100 European cities. 

Through door2door's proprietary mobility orchestration platform encompassing fleet operations management, insights and reporting, a driver, passenger and attendant application, as well as a white-label engine, API integration and free floating options, the deal opens up the full potential of SaaS for SWVL. Through tech integration, the startup could predict and identify latent demand, create routes around demand clusters, create dynamic routes and cost efficient plans, price supply through bidding, and enhance dynamic pricing capabilities.

The deal also feeds into SWVL’s goal of adopting an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategy in regards to automated/electric vehicle technology with a view to establishing partnerships to digitise non-emergency medical transport. door2door's suite of mobility solutions include electric/automated fleet management, alongside on-demand and fixed route public transit, corporate and campus shuttles, autonomous logistics delivery and demand management - all of which will be at SWVL’s disposal.