Montreal’s Busbud Raises $9 Million Series A Round Led by OMERS Ventures

Montreal’s Busbud announced this morning the closing of a $9 million Series A funding round, co-led by OMERS Ventures and Revolution Ventures.

iNovia Capital and Real Ventures, who co-led an initial $1.2 million seed roundin May 2013,  also participating in the round.

Self-described as the Kayak for bus travel, Busbud is the only platform that helps travelers search, compare and book bus trips online at a global level. Busbud leverages the ground networks of nearly 1,500 bus companies around the world, providing coach scheduling information and booking options for over 10,460 cities in 89 countries.

“It’s easy to find and book plane tickets on sites like Expedia or Kayak. Booking bus tickets online is a whole other story,” says LP Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Busbud.

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“For example, a bus ticket from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo during the World Cup can be as low as $29. That information used to be hard to find for international travelers. Now they can find it on Busbud.com and book their ticket directly, without taking that extra trip to the bus station.”

Maurice, a Harvard Business School graduate, had the idea for Busbud while backpacking across South America in early 2011. Later that year, Maurice, co-founded Busbud with two long-time friends: Microsoft veteran Mike Gradek, now CTO, and Chief Analytics Officer Frederic Thouin.

OMERS Ventures has previously led $100M+ investments in Shopify and Hootsuite, and is the venture capital investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension plans.

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“Busbud is at the forefront of the transformation of the large and growing global bus travel industry into a modern marketplace,” says Kevin Kimsa, Managing Director at OMERS Ventures. “LP and his management team have built an industry-leading platform marrying supply and demand at a time when mobile services are simply expected.”

Busbud has grown its team from five to more than 30 employees since early 2013.