Moovit, an Israeli public transport start-up, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round, which brings their total funding to approximately $81.5 million and makes the company worth between $300 million and $450 million

Founded in 2011 and created by TranzMate Ltd., Moovit is a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows riders to plan a trip on local public transport, while at the same time anticipate any obstacles and find the most convenient and quickest route. The app then tracks your position and feeds back information about your journey.

Similar to Israeli company Waze, which Google Inc. bought for $1 billion in 2013, Moovit relies on municipalities as well as its users to make it even more successful. Users can constantly add information in real-time about a city’s train, bus metro or tram systems to the app, like when a bus is late, so that everyone benefits.

“What differentiates us is we’re the only app that combines data coming from municipalities, open data, with information gathered from the crowd,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Nir Erez. “It makes our data way more accurate and comprehensive.”

In Israel, Moovit has integrated taxi service GetTaxi into their app and U.S. users can book a taxi with Lyft. They claim to have 15 million public transport users who use the app in over 400 cities around the world, including Barcelona, Rome, New York and Bangkok. The presence in the U.S. is still quite small with only 50 cities, however new cities are being added every day.

Investors for the Series C round include Nokia Growth Partners, i Ventures, French public transit operator Keolis, Bernard Arnault Group and Vaizra Investments, as well as current investors BRM Group, Gemini Partners and Sequoia Capital. The money raised will be used to improve services and to expand beyond North America, Latin America and Europe into Asia Pacific.

You can download the Moovit app free from their website or via the Apple iTunes App Store, Google Play App Store or Windows Phone App Marketplace.

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