Nat Parker CEO of moovel North America. Parker is also the co-founder and former CEO of GlobeSherpa. Image via moovel
Nat Parker is the CEO of newly-formed moovel North America. Parker is also the co-founder and former CEO of GlobeSherpa. Image via moovel

Cities are getting crowded and public transit agencies are struggling to keep up, but taking a train is often the fastest way to get from one side of town to the other.

However, the last mile can still prove difficult, with many people hailing an Uber after getting off the subway. An expansion from Daimler-owned Moovel looks to offer a streamlined service for booking both at once.

Moovel Group is combining the operations of Portland, Ore.-based mobile transit ticketing startup GlobeSherpa with RideScout, the “Kayak of ground transportation,” to form the new Moovel North America, as the company expands into the U.S. Moovel acquired RideScout in 2014 and added GlobeSherpa to its portfolio last year.

Moovel already operates one popular service in the U.S., car-sharing service car2go, but hopes to expand those options with the new company announced today. Its first step in that expansion is turning GlobeSherpa’s TransitSherpa service into Moovel transit platform, which is a white-label solution for public transit agencies to provide mobile ticketing and payment options.

moovel's timeline. Image via moovel
Image via Moovel. Click for full size.

The company is also working on RideTap, which builds on RideScout’s service that allows users to find all the ground transportation options available to them from within one app. Developers can leverage the RideTap SDK to integrate various transportation options into their apps.

For example, the program is being tested in Portland, where the TriMet Tickets mobile app has integrated the ability to hail a Lyft or book a car2go from within the app, allowing users to plan trips using multiple forms of transportation.

Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, is looking to capture the growing urban population in the U.S. as they look for ways to get around crowded cities by utilizing multiple forms of transportation for one trip. The company has invested in European Uber competitor MyTaxi and long-distance bus service MeinFernBus prior to this expansion.

Moovel North America will have a headquarters in Portland, with GlobeSherpa co-founder Nat Parker serving as CEO of the new company. RideScout co-founder and former CEO Joseph Kopser is taking the role of president at Moovel Group, the German parent of the new U.S. operations. The company will also maintain offices in Austin.

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