Intel wants to bet on the smart mobility solutions market and announced that it has acquired Moovit, the Israeli company specializing in the development of transport applications, for 900 million dollars. Confirmation comes after a six-month negotiation process.
In a statement, Intel says that the purchase of Moovit is approaching the goal of increasing its participation in the sector of technologies for autonomous vehicles, including robot taxis. Moovit will now join Mobileye, the Israeli technology company that developed the first commercial version of Tesla's Autopilot and was purchased by Intel in 2017 for $ 15.3 billion.
The American technological giant already owned part of the Israeli company. In February 2018, Intel's investment arm led an investment round of around $ 50 million. The deal also resulted in the inclusion of Amnon Shashua, Intel's vice president, on the Moovit board.
Remember that the Moovit app was launched in 2011 and provides useful information about public transport to help people navigate urban areas. In the past nine years, the company has gained 720 million users in more than 3,100 cities. The application arrived in Portugal in 2016, debuting in the cities of Lisbon, Porto, Funchal and Coimbra.
According to Moovit, more than six billion data points are used to generate a network of information that is updated in real time. The company stresses that "the largest repository of traffic data and urban mobility". In addition to the application, Moovit also provides data analysis platforms to cities, transit authorities and companies.
The deal between Intel and Moovit is one of the many investments the US company has made in the Israeli technology sector. Also in December 2019, Intel bought Habana Labs, the company that makes artificial intelligence chips, for two billion dollars.
