Travel Demand Management Platform ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ Secures £1.2M Funding
Midlands-based travel demand management platform ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ (YST) has secured £1.2 million in funding, from the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO). The regional fund is managed by Midven, part of Future Planet Capital, and has invested alongside angel investors including Giles Fearnley, ex-MD at First Bus, Will Phillipson ex-COO Citymapper, Venture Innovators’ Jeremy Acklam, and green energy company, Ecotricity.
‘You.
Smart. Thing.’ addresses sustainable travel solutions for destinations, venues, and live events. Its personalised low carbon travel plans and intuitive travel assistant interface suggest alternative travel routes and detail the carbon footprint of each option. Attendees of live events often suffer inaccurate travel advice, which causes delays and negatively impacts the visitor experience. This is particularly prevalent for disabled travellers or those in large groups – with 10% of people requesting accessible routes via YST’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games travel assistant deployment.
Visitor travel accounts for ~73% of the total carbon footprint for live events globally. By capturing data on travel demand, modal choice, routes, and third-party emissions, YST enables venues to enhance logistics and security management, deliver contextually relevant marketing communications, and reduce the carbon footprint of visitor travel. The reporting gives venues clarity of both their travel demand and their third-party emissions. For visitors, the service can be tailored to offer bespoke routes and lower carbon modes of transport to specific venues.
Click here for a full list of 6,908+ startup investors in the UK