The Busup company has found a vein of business in corporate transportation services, operating as an intermediary between bus companies and companies that offer private transportation to their employees.
“We have the objective of helping companies reduce transportation costs and we have verified that demand has skyrocketed with the return of employees to the office after the end of the pandemic,” says Rui Stoffel, CEO of the Barcelona firm. , founded in 2016.
Due to the surge in demand, Stoffel assures that Busup has increased its turnover by 75%, reaching revenues of 29.1 million euros in 2023. “We work for 170 large companies, such as Leroy Merlin, Ficosa or Cognizant ”says the entrepreneur.
The idea arose in the classrooms of the IESE business school, where Stoffel developed a project together with Alejandro Canals, from the family that owns the Canals bus chain.
After several years apart, they decided to bring the project to the market and convinced Danilo Tamelini and Eva Romagosa to join the adventure.
With cutting-edge technology – which allows customers to share routes with each other to reduce costs – Busup has managed to expand in Latin America and the United States. In fact, 60% of its turnover comes from Mexico and Brazil (where Tamelini resides) while the rest is distributed between Spain, Portugal and recently, the United States.
“This year, we want to consolidate our presence in the US and maintain double-digit growth. We think that our service is increasing because companies want to retain their employees by offering personalized services such as transportation,” says the founder. To address growth, the company plans to hire more than 20 people in the team, now consisting of 160 workers.
Since its inception, the company has financed its expansion through contributions from venture capital funds. In total, it has raised 14 million euros, from investors such as Autotech, Proeza and Finaves, the IESE startup investment vehicle. This year, Busup rules out carrying out new capital increases and plans to grow with the resources it already has. At the moment, it does not generate net profit although it is working to achieve it in the medium term.
