Bus-ticket booking service Busbud catches on in 10,000 cities, raises $9M

Montreal-based bus-ticket booking company Busbud has pulled in $9 million in a Series A round of funding, it announced today.

Busbud allows travelers to find bus operators in their area and buy tickets through Busbud.com or its free mobile app. LP Maurice, a Harvard Business School graduate, came up with the idea for Busbud in 2011 and started the business with friends Mike Gradek and Frederic Thouin.

“Busbud is already in 10,000 cities working with about about 1,500 bus companies. We would like to expand that to ideally 20,000 or 25,000 cities and probably 4,000 or 5,000 bus companies,” said David Golden, managing partner for Busbud investor Revolution Ventures.

The company now operates in 89 countries to provide scheduling information and booking options to Busbud.com users. It is most prominent in Europe and the Americas and picked up quite a bit of new following due to the World Cup in Brazil.

“It’s easy to find and book plane tickets on sites like Expedia or Kayak,” said Maurice, who is the company’s CEO. “Booking bus tickets online is a whole other story.”

Busbud has grown from five employees to more than 30 over the past 18 months, Golden stated.

The funding round was led by OMERS Ventures and Revolution Ventures, venture capital investment firms. Real Ventures and iNovia Capital, two venture capital companies that had participated in an initial $1.2 million round of funding in May 2013, also contributed to the Series A round.

“Busbud will be spending the money on technology, engineers, and engineering talent,” said Golden. “Secondly, it will be [investing in] a sales and marketing effort.”