Germany’s ioki enters US with Georgetown shuttle contract and new subsidiary
The Frankfurt-based transit software provider has established a US subsidiary and secured Georgetown University as its first American customer.
Germany’s ioki has established a US subsidiary and secured Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as its first American customer, marking the transit software company’s entry into the United States. The university will begin using ioki’s platform for a new on-demand shuttle service in October, the company said in an October 1 announcement.
The Frankfurt-based business is also building a local team to support a long-term presence in the market. It described the move as the first concrete step in its international growth strategy. The announcement did not disclose the contract’s value, the shuttle fleet’s size, staffing targets or the location of the US subsidiary.
A campus contract, with transit authorities the wider target
Georgetown gives ioki an initial US deployment, but the company’s stated target extends beyond university transportation. As in Europe, it plans to focus primarily on public transport authorities seeking to automate services and expand them on a financially sustainable basis.
Its proposition combines software for on-demand and fixed-route services with data-based transport planning and mobility simulation. That gives the US expansion two commercial strands: supplying the platform used to run services and helping authorities assess how their networks could operate more efficiently.
The distinction matters in the car-centric US market that ioki is targeting. Rather than pitching only a new shuttle service, the company is positioning its technology around the economics of public transport. It identifies rising cost pressure and the expiry of funding programmes as challenges shared by American and European operators.
ioki says it has analysed and simulated billions of mobility patterns and trip distances across more than 230 planning projects, using the results to identify potential efficiencies in existing networks. That European experience underpins its US pitch, although the announcement provides no performance targets or expected savings for Georgetown.
International growth under BENTELER
The expansion follows BENTELER’s acquisition of ioki earlier in 2026. Tobias Liebelt, chief executive of BENTELER Mobility, said international growth potential had been a central rationale for the acquisition and linked the US entry to the group’s strategy of supporting economically viable autonomous mobility.
The Georgetown announcement does not describe the university’s shuttles as autonomous. The immediate project is a deployment of ioki’s on-demand transport platform, distinct from the parent group’s broader autonomous-mobility ambitions.
“We see a clear opportunity to help cities and transit operators in the US make individual public transit more digital and, above all, more efficient,” said Michael Barillère-Scholz, ioki’s co-founder and chief executive.
Building a pipeline beyond Georgetown
ioki expects further services using its platform and additional mobility-planning work using ioki Analytics to follow shortly. It did not name other customers or provide launch dates, leaving Georgetown as the only disclosed US contract.
The company plans to introduce its products to the wider US transit industry at APTA’s TRANSform & EXPO in Chicago on October 4–7, alongside HOLON and BENTELER Mobility. The event offers a near-term opportunity to turn its first customer and new local presence into a broader American pipeline.
