Remix picks up $15 million to help cities make better decisions around transit

A San Francisco-based startup just raised $15 million to solve the complicated problem of transit infrastructure in urban environments. Remix was founded by Tiffany Chu, Dan Getelman, Danny Whalen, and Sam Hashemi in 2014 following a project they built during their Code For America fellowships.

The $15 million Series B round was led by Energy Impact Partners, bringing total funding to $27 million.

Remix allows cities to plan public transit infrastructure, quickly computing how a change in a certain bus or train route or the addition of a bike lane might affect the city overall, all through a drag and drop menu. The platform also looks at how to manage private transportation options like ridesharing, dockless bikes and scooters, etc.

“This is an industry that has changed faster in the last five years than it did in the last 50,” said Chu, cofounder and COO. “One of our challenges is explaining to people, the community, what are the impacts of certain decisions around the way things have always been?”

One of the ways Remix measures its own success and allows its users to do the same is through a metric called Jane. Jane is an icon that you can drop anywhere on the map and see how far that fictional person can travel in 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes, and how many jobs they might have access to based on changes in the public transit.

More than 300 cities are using the Remix platform, and the company says that 100 million+ people will be impacted by plans that are either completed or in progress.

Alongside helping cities make better decisions for the community, it also helps those governments better express their decision-making process. This is especially important as governments and citizens weigh the impacts of single-occupancy vehicles on the environment. The EPA says that transportation accounts for 28 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

“Parking is such a huge, huge point of contention for every city and being able to explain to somebody why a transit lane or a bike lane or a parklet might be more beneficial for the community at large as opposed to having people freak out over removal of two parking spots,” said Chu. “That’s a shifting conversation we, as an industry, need to have in order for everyone to start moving in the right direction, away from single occupancy vehicles.”

Remix is currently working with a wide variety of markets, including HonoLulu, Auckland, Dallas, Seattle and New York.