Ontra Mobility

What do they actually do

Ontra sells two live products to transit agencies and mobility program partners: a planning tool and an operations suite. The planning tool ingests GTFS schedules, ridership/APC and demographic data to build a demand model and routing simulation so planners can test route/headway/zone changes and compare ridership, travel time, access, crowding, and cost; it also includes faster, in‑platform ridership predictions and an optimizer to generate candidate networks under constraints Planning Ridership Predictions.

The operations suite runs on‑demand and mixed fixed/on‑demand services: algorithmic dispatching, driver and rider apps, GTFS/GTFS‑RT management, real‑time tracking, and analytics/reporting for agencies. Agencies run services via the dashboard; riders use a white‑labeled app in the regions where it’s deployed Operations Rider app Play Store listing. Ontra lists municipal partners and pilots such as MARTA Reach, CAT SMART, and the University of Michigan’s RITMO program Operations (partners) YC company page.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Transit planner at a city or regional agency: Needs fast, reliable ridership forecasts and to test many redesign scenarios, but traditional modeling takes months and often requires consultants. Ontra offers in‑platform scenario simulation and quicker ridership predictions to compare tradeoffs.
• Operations manager / dispatch supervisor: Must run day‑to‑day services (including mixed fixed‑route and on‑demand zones) but often relies on manual dispatching and patchwork tools. Ontra aims to automate dispatch, provide driver/rider apps, and centralize real‑time reporting.
• Agency IT / data lead: Has to integrate and maintain GTFS/GTFS‑RT, APC/ridership feeds, and vehicle telemetry; keeping feeds reliable is time‑consuming and risky. Ontra’s onboarding centralizes ingestion and produces runnable outputs.
• City mobility or program manager focused on equity/budget: Needs to show how changes affect access, budget, and underserved communities, but running constrained optimizations and producing implementable plans is hard. Ontra is building optimizers and forecasts to generate candidate networks under constraints and convert them to executable plans.
• Employer or university transportation coordinator: Wants a branded rider experience and simple operations for shuttles or campus microtransit without building backend systems. Ontra offers a white‑labeled rider app and operations stack to reduce internal engineering overhead.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Convert current pilots and municipal partners (e.g., MARTA, CAT, RITMO) into paid contracts via short, high‑touch pilots that deliver runnable GTFS plus a validated forecast, and use founders’ prior deployments as references Operations YC company page Ridership Predictions.
• First 50: Replicate regionally with a standardized paid “design + forecast” workshop, hand agencies a procurement‑ready scope/price, and leverage the first 10 customers as local references; publish short playbooks for data ingestion and offer a fixed‑scope onboarding package Planning Operations.
• First 100: Scale via channels: partner with state DOTs/large authorities and consultants who embed or resell Ontra in larger procurements, and productize a white‑label offering for universities/employers to grow outside municipal RFP cycles; standardize low‑touch onboarding and connectors Rider app Homepage partners.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Analyst estimates for public‑transportation software (planning, GTFS/GTFS‑RT, dispatch, analytics) cluster around roughly USD 0.86–0.91B in 2024 and growing Credence Research Verified Market Research. Microtransit/on‑demand software is commonly estimated in the hundreds of millions to low‑single‑billion range depending on scope OpenPR MarketReportAnalytics.

Bottom-up calculation:

As a buyer count baseline, the U.S. NTD logs nearly 3,000 reporting transit agencies; adding similar agencies internationally yields several thousand potential buyers, with a practical near‑term SAM of several hundred mid‑to‑large agencies and program partners that operate mixed fixed/on‑demand services FTA NTD 2023 APTA Fact Book.

Assumptions:

• TAM focuses on transit planning/operations software; excludes fare collection, broad logistics/TMS, and fleet telematics except where directly tied to transit operations.
• Counts include public agencies plus employer/university mobility programs using similar planning/dispatch tools.
• Only agencies/programs with budgets, data access (GTFS/APC/telemetry), and appetite for cloud tools are considered near‑term serviceable.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Via (incl. Remix): End‑to‑end transit tech provider offering planning (Remix) and microtransit operations; competes directly in network planning and on‑demand dispatch for agencies.
• Optibus: Cloud platform for planning, scheduling, and rostering for mass transit; strong in vehicle/crew scheduling and operational optimization used by agencies and operators.
• Swiftly: Real‑time transit data and operations platform used for service reliability, planning analytics, and GTFS‑RT—often paired with or replacing legacy operations tools.
• RideCo: Microtransit software for dynamic, shared on‑demand services with agency deployments; competes on dispatch algorithms, driver/rider apps, and reporting.
• Spare: Cloud platform for on‑demand transit and paratransit; focuses on algorithmic dispatch, scheduling, and APIs for agencies and mobility operators.