#movingpeople meets HopOn

HopOn is a unique MaaS company, both scaled and profitable. With HQs in Israel, the UK, and Germany - and operations across Europe and Canada - HopOn has quietly built what many promised but few delivered: a working, sustainable MaaS ecosystem.

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility", focused on growth.

Disclaimer: I work with HopOn to support their UK & wider European market entry.

Hello Ofer, HopOn’s founder. If I needed to describe HopOn in one word - it would be “MaaS” - but HopOn is more than that. Can you share how it all started and what is HopOn today?

Hi Barak. The story of HopOn goes back to 2013. I was an accounting intern at KPMG, which had their offices in Tel Aviv, and needed to commute from my home town of Petah-Tikva. It was only a 10km (6 mile) commute ride, no need to change buses, almost entirely on a dedicated bus lane - but it took forever. More than an hour each day! 

Me and a friend of mine, a fellow intern and later a HopOn co-founder, had this game - we would measure how much time the bus spent at each bus stop. This was back when drivers themselves would handle only cash payments. And it took an average of 4 minutes per stop! Overall, waiting at stops took half the time it took us to get from our home to the office. The entire system was archaic, and demanded disruption. 

We didn’t know exactly what the solution would be, and at the time were focused on our internships. Around mid 2013 we had a solution that could work and I left KPMG to pursue HopOn. In 2014 we had our first investors, a large PTO which we also did the POC with, and in 2015 the service was up and running. Back then it was digital payment for a single ride using beacons and QR codes - that’s how it all started. 

Let’s fast forward to today - what is HopOn? 

Today we have operations in Israel, the UK and Germany. 

Israel: today HopOn is the leader in pre (e.g. Oyster) & post paid (app, credit & debit cards) payment solutions. We have circa 40% of the Israeli market, which is estimated to be 3 billion NIS ($900M) in annual transaction volume. I know that number seems small - in addition to the 3bn in direct fare transactions, Israel’s public transport sector is backed by 10 billion NIS ($3 billion) in government subsidies, not included in our volume figures. We have a nation-wide deployment through a network of more than 20 different operators. We have 1.5 million unique monthly users. That’s out of roughly 3.5 million public transport users - so 40% of the market! (Israel has a population of 10 million people - BS). We do route planning, payment, public transport and micromobility etc. integrations - the text book of a fully developed MaaS player. 

During the pandemic we had a major tail-wind - the MoT decided to stop altogether any driver cash payment and move to an all-digital payment system. We used that opportunity to raise more funds and expand to Europe. 

UK: In 2021 we acquired ECR Retail Systems. ECR focuses on retail experiences - we power the retail experience of David Lloyds, in the UK and across their European operations, of Visit Scotland, of Cadw - and also own circa 70% of the rail food & beverage market - that is the software and hardware parts of it - we don’t do catering or operations. GWR, LNER, Scotrail - those are some of our customers. We also work with Via Rail in Canada. We decided to double down on the UK market and lately won two tenders - the Essex MaaS deployment and the Digital PAYG pilot with the DfT. 

We acquired German TAF Mobile a year later, 2022. TAF is also a classic MaaS player - with deployments in Leipzig, Bonn and Halle. 

We are in a strong position today - and profitable. Which is something I feel you have to actively mention these days. 

That is a long list. What is your focus right now? 

Two main avenues. One, we’re investing in our European growth. We acquired ECR four years ago and TAF three years ago, and today our European activity is roughly half of the group’s activity.  

Our 2nd focus is on a growing global trend - Mobility Budget. When I say “Mobility Budget” I mean - how do employers subsidise public transport for their employees commute, in a way that isn’t just giving them money into their paycheck, but being able to directly subsidise public transport. We launched this product in Israel a few months ago, and are seeing great results. It actually started with school rides, and there we were able to save X4 for our clients, because of the legacy methods and contracts that were existent in the industry. 

I’ll give you a corporate commute example - we allow businesses to offer subsidised or free bus and rail transport via our app - which is the same app used by people to commute today. In Israel there are two post-paid app-based MaaS players and we are one of them. So in the app the employer can select to what extent, and what kind of solutions, to subside. This isn’t just an employee benefit - businesses save on parking costs. Some also pay for fuel costs or congestion charge costs, and those are now saved. We’re growing in Israel but are also looking at European markets - the Netherlands and Belgium as an example. 

Good luck. There is a lot of talk about “Mobility Budget”, but you need the right cultural and regulatory conditions to make that work. The territories you speak of sound right. I usually ask about thoughts on Europe vs. the US, in terms of market opportunity, but it seems obsolete in the public transport case. 

Yes. We’re in the business of MaaS, of public transport. We haven’t been able to see any meaningful opportunity in the US so far. In Europe we’re seeing a lot. The UK and Germany we already acted on. We’re looking at other markets. We’re busy. 

Before we sign off - any advice to fellow founders? 

Yes, two tips. 

One - there are advantages in having industry players as investors. They know the market: customers, suppliers, politics, everything. They can validate your idea. They are smart in what they do, and can speed growth. I know many founders are in favour of VCs, that’s all good, but don’t rule those industry players out. For us it was the strategic partnership and investment we had with DAN, Israel’s 2nd largest PTO, that propelled us forward. 

The 2nd advice has to do with IP - and that is: if you plan on investing your own money in the setup of your startup - mostly reaching out to bootstrapped founders out there - make sure the IP is (1) registered and (2) under your name. That way when an investment comes through you can transfer the IP for money, to cover up all or some of the initial costs you had. 

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