Souter Investments has completed the sale of education mobility platform Kura, to global transit-technology business Zeelo.
Kura is a market leading mobility platform providing safeguarding SaaS products and managed services to its education and corporate clients, with a particular strength in home to school services. The combined Zeelo and Kura platform will become the largest virtual bus operation in the UK, providing over 220 customers and 40,000 daily riders with tech enabled, sustainable, efficient, and safe transportation.
Godfrey Ryan, CEO of Kura said, “This is a fantastic outcome for the Kura team, and we’re delighted to be joining forces with Sam and the team at Zeelo. From day one, Kura has had the vision to provide sustainable, efficient, and safe transportation programs for our clients and I know the Zeelo team shares this same vision. I’m excited to be working as one team as we continue to serve our fantastic customers across the UK.”
Sam Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Zeelo said “After our recent significant fundraise announcement, I’m delighted to be sharing the news of further growth through the acquisition of Kura. We were impressed with the world class technology and the high-quality service delivery provided by the Kura team. Their complimentary business model will further accelerate our profitability in the UK. This is the first of many M&A opportunities that will play an important role in our growth strategy as we continue to scale in the UK and US markets.’
Maurice Shamash, Investment Director at Souter Investments said: “We have enjoyed working alongside Godfrey and his team who have successfully grown Kura by blending sustainable transport and technology solutions with high quality customer service. We look forward to seeing that continue as part of the Zeelo group and wish the combined business every success in the future.”
Addleshaw Goddard acted as legal counsel advising Kura’s shareholders with LAVA Advisory Partners providing corporate finance advisory services.
About Souter Investments
Souter Investments is one of the UK’s leading family investment offices specialising in private equity. Founded in 2006, Souter has invested over £500m in more than seventy unquoted companies and currently has significant investments in over thirty businesses, acting either as the lead investor or as a partner for other financial sponsors.
Recent acquisitions include Premier Hytemp, a global leader of precision engineered alloy components for the energy industry; Tracerco, a specialised detection, diagnostic, and measurement solutions business in a deal co-led with Sullivan Street Partners; and Premier Modular, a leading provider of leasing and permanent modular building solutions in partnership with MML Infrastructure. Portfolio companies also include Akixi, which provides cloud-based call and contact analytics solutions under a SaaS model, and Likezero, revolutionary real-time, contextualised, contract intelligence to leading financial institutions enabling enhanced counterparty insight, risk management, and decision-making.
For more information, please visit www.souterinvestments.com.
About Kura
Established in 2010, Kura is a leading UK shared transport service provider, bringing together game-changing technology and a safer, smarter, greener vision to change the way people travel.
Kura specialises in Corporate and Education transport solutions, sourcing, delivering, and managing Home to Work services, staff and student shuttles plus VIP transport for high profile transfers, events and tours.
Our powerful transport safeguarding software can track each journey, ensuring passenger safety and measuring environmental efficiency in a convenient, user-friendly and cost-effective format. Kura helps schools and businesses achieve their goals of providing safe, sustainable and efficient transport that also delivers a better passenger and parent experience.
For additional information, please visit www.ridekura.com
About Zeelo
Zeelo is a leading global TransitTech company powering bus operators, employers, and schools to provide highly efficient, sustainable, and affordable transportation programs.
Zeelo provides software and managed services to its clients and partners to increase bus occupancy levels, reduce transportation costs, CO2 emissions and administrative time. Its secure and innovative transportation management software system comprises a SaaS platform, a proprietary routing algorithm, mobile apps for riders and drivers, and 24/7 customer support ensuring poorly connected commuters have a regular, subsidised, and sustainable bus service, wherever they are based.
Headquartered in London with an R&D team in Spain and live operations in the UK, US and South Africa, Zeelo was founded in 2016 by Sam Ryan, Barney Williams and Dani Ruiz. The co-founders previously sold their pioneering ride-sharing app JumpIn to Addison Lee in 2014.
Please visit www.zeelo.co.