HopSkipDrive raises $22M in funding to help create opportunity through mobility

Today I’m excited to share that we’ve raised $22 million in funding from Cyrus Capital Partners, State Farm Ventures, and more, including existing investors Upfront Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Greycroft. Denis Gallagher, founder and former CEO of Student Transportation of America, also joined this round as an investor, and is a member of the HopSkipDrive Board and HopSkipDrive Safety Advisory Board. 

Funding from the tech, business and student transportation industries further validates that HopSkipDrive solves a real problem for families and school districts. We’ll use the capital to expand to new markets where we can help even more children reach their highest  potential by creating access to opportunity through improved mobility, while continuing to focus on safety innovation through technology and product development. 

A year of exponential growth 

This funding comes on the heels of a high-growth year for HopSkipDrive. We grew school district and county ride volume 4X, solidifying HopSkipDrive as a leader in the school transportation space. 

The way HopSkipDrive bundles smart technology and operational excellence provides a cost-efficient, safe and flexible solution that helps school districts fulfill non-routine student transportation needs. In addition, we’ve built a successful expansion plan and playbook that we continue to implement as we enter new markets. 

HopSkipDrive now…

• Offers service in 13 major markets across eight states and Washington D.C.

• Partners with 200+ schools and districts to offer an alternative transportation solution for homeless  students, youth in foster care, students with special needs and more. 

• Works with clients like Los Angeles County, the largest child welfare system in the country, major districts such as Seattle Public Schools, and charter school networks like Green Dot Public Schools. 

• Has a dedicated and passionate team of over 100 employees, many of whom have a background in education.

• Has enabled over 1 million trips to or from schools, across 7+ million safe miles.

In January of 2020, we launched in Las Vegas, providing service to families and partnering with the Clark County Department of Child and Family Services to help foster children get to school safely and on-time.  

Investors and advisors who understand the problem we’re solving.

As our business evolved from serving families to also serving schools and districts, we brought in experts from industries in transportation, student transportation, and safety, who know the acute need for cost-efficient, flexible, safe non-routine school transportation.

Denis Gallagher, investor and student transportation industry veteran, says, “School transportation is evolving and one of the most exciting changes I’ve seen is HopSkipDrive entering the market. HopSkipDrive’s innovation and culture around safety drives their approach to addressing a major challenge in the industry.”

Cyrus Capital also has extensive experience in transportation, having led early investments in Virgin America and May Mobility. Partner John Rapaport says, “HopSkipDrive is solving a major problem within school transportation, the country’s largest mass transit system, and doing it in a unique way that creates wins for kids, school districts and communities. Their technological innovation, strong leadership, and proven expansion strategy keep them moving in an upward trajectory. We’re proud to invest in HopSkipDrive’s continued success.”

In addition, it has always been important to us to have investors that invest in diverse teams, and that look to increase the amount of funding going toward female founders. This round also includes both new and existing investors 1776 Ventures, Women’s Venture Capital Fund, Halogen Ventures, BBG Ventures, Gingerbread Capital, Gaingels, 1843 Capital, The Artemis Fund and Alumni Ventures.

Our investors believe in our product, our proven growth plan and in our mission to help all kids reach their highest potential through greater access to mobility. 

Technology driven by our biggest priority: safety

Safety has always been at the core of everything we do, and at the core of our innovation. 

We’ve innovated on safety features by designing the first of it’s kind 15-point certification CareDriver vetting process. This process leads the industry and is still the most rigorous driver vetting process for child rideshare, or any rideshare. 

Our proprietary Safe Ride Support technology enables real-time ride monitoring and anomaly detection so that parents, schools and our Safe Ride Support team always have full visibility and can proactively address any situation live and in real-time.

To continue to maintain our culture of safety and our approach to innovating around safety, we recently formed a Safety Advisory Board comprised of industry leaders and experts in safe youth transportation.. 

In the upcoming year, we’ll continue our laser focus on safety innovation and optimizing our Safe Ride Support technology. 

Our mission: narrowing the opportunity gap for children

Success starts by showing up. When a child doesn’t have a way to get there, they don’t have the opportunity to succeed. HopSkipDrive helps all kids on their journey to success, both for families who use the service to get their kids to school or after school activities as well as for schools and districts who are solving complicated transportation needs for homeless youth, youth in foster care and students with special needs. 

Here’s what a few of our users  have to say about the impact of HopSkipDrive… 

“[HopSkipDrive] helps reduce the district’s overall transportation costs [and] helps shorten commute times – meaning less time in transit and more time learning.” – Leigh Cook, Director of Federal Programs and Academic Compliance at Keller Independent School District in Dallas-Fort Worth 

“Being able to continue attending their school of origin is often the most stability [foster youth] have. That would have been impossible for many of them without HopSkipDrive, an invaluable partner in supporting the educational stability of our foster youth.” – Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services Education Specialist Tina Garcia

And a Rider, who is currently in foster care, shared that, because of HopSkipDrive, he was able to get to school on time, everyday. With regular attendance, he improved his GPA to an A average. He finished by saying he would never have been able to do that without HopSkipDrive.  

Hearing that our solution is helping kids reach their full potential by removing a real barrier to success — not being able to show up — is what drives us. We’re excited to use this funding to expand to new markets, helping more children to achieve their dreams through mobility.