Moovit Cuts One-Third of Staff Amid CEO Departure and Strategic Shift

Moovit, the public transportation app operator owned by Mobileye, is laying off about one-third of its roughly 200 employees. This move coincides with Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua's announcement yesterday that he will step down after 27 years. Intel acquired Moovit in 2020 for $915 million, integrating it under Mobileye, then a fully owned private company. In April, reports indicated Mobileye was seeking to sell Moovit, hiring Barclays investment bank to find a buyer.

Founded in 2011 by Nir Erez, Roy Bick, and Yaron Avron, Moovit launched its app in 2012 and raised approximately $134 million before the Intel acquisition. Its last funding round in February 2018 valued the company at $550 million post-money. Investors included Gemini Ventures, actor Ashton Kutcher, the Barkat brothers, Sequoia Capital, Uri Levine (Waze co-founder), and Vintage Investment Partners.

Initially offering a free service to end users, Moovit expanded its business model to provide cities and authorities with technological solutions for mapping, managing, and optimizing public transportation systems. Headquartered in Ness Ziona, the company developed a navigation app enabling multi-modal trip planning, available for free with premium paid services. Moovit holds one of the world's largest public transit data repositories and monetizes anonymized travel pattern data sold to municipalities and transport companies for fleet and infrastructure planning.

In a letter to employees, Moovit management stated the layoffs are part of a strategic focus on increasing investment in consumer operations to accelerate growth and expand the global user base. The company is reallocating budgets toward user acquisition, seen as the biggest opportunity to boost growth and strengthen Moovit's long-term market position. Concurrently, Moovit plans to expand into the robotaxi market, integrating its products and technology more deeply with Mobileye. The company will continue investing in initiatives that enhance this collaboration and position it for long-term success in emerging opportunities.