Passport scores $65M Series D to fuel open mobility ecosystem for cities and enable mobile parking

Passport, a fintech startup transforming the way cities manage their operations by reducing operational complexity and delivering intelligent data, has closed a $65 million Series D funding to grow its mobility software platform and expanding the mobility ecosystem to enable digital parking payments outside of traditional parking apps. The round was led by new investors Rho Capital Partners, H.I.G. Growth Partners and ThornTree Capital Partners. They were joined by existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, MK Capital, Grotech Ventures, and Relevance Capital. To date, Passport has raised a total of $125 million in funding.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Passport was founded in 2010 by Bob Youakim and Charlie Youakim to transforms the way cities manage their operations. Its mobile-first platform has been adopted by more than 450 cities, universities, and private operators around the world in cities including Chicago, Toronto, London, and Miami, across more than 5,000 locations.

Passport’s product lines – parking, transit and tolling payments, parking enforcement, and permit management – enable organizations in the public and private sectors to streamline their operations, enhance customer service, and make data-driven decisions.

“In the future, almost everyone in the world will live in a city, so there’s no more important challenge to work on than how people move throughout communities and transact with cities,” said Bob Youakim, Passport co-founder and CEO. “We envision a world where mobility is seamless. To bring this vision to life, we are creating an open ecosystem where any entity – a connected or autonomous vehicle, a mapping app, or a parking app – can leverage our transactional infrastructure to facilitate digital parking payments.”

This represents a major shift in the parking industry, which has been focused on building one-size-fits-all applications. Now, Passport can help cities take control of the curb, optimize mobility and create an interface between the city’s infrastructure and vehicles. In the coming months, Passport will be onboarding and announcing partners who are leveraging its APIs to facilitate parking payments.

With the close of the Series D round, Habib Kairouz from Rho Capital Partners will be joining Passport’s board of directors, along with Scott Hilleboe from H.I.G.

“Over the past decade, Passport has cemented itself as a leader in mobility technology and municipal payments,” said Kairouz, managing partner at Rho Capital Partners. “We see great potential in what the company can achieve in the next ten years as it facilitates partnerships that will further improve how people move around cities.”

“Passport is uniquely positioned to transform urban mobility and how cities interact with their residents,” said Scott Hilleboe, managing director at H.I.G. Growth Partners. “We believe Passport’s technology platform at the epicenter of mobility, payments, and smart cities will enable the company to be a leader in the digitization of our cities. We are excited about our opportunity to support the company as it continues its significant growth.”

Passport serves nearly 1,000 clients worldwide, helping them to solve mobility challenges with solutions for parking, enforcement, permits, transit, and micro-mobility. Passport processes more than 100 million curbside transactions each year, resulting in more than $1.5 billion processed to date. This year, Passport was named to the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists for the second year in a row.