NEM Ventures makes seed round investment in Aussie ridesharing app

NEM Ventures, the venture capital and investments arm of the NEM blockchain ecosystem, has announced a seed round investment in ridesharing app, Mobi, which facilitates safe and affordable carpooling to help alleviate pollution.

On the app, commuters pre-arrange rides up to a week in advance, by selecting which dates and times they will be requiring or providing services. Commuters will also have control over who they choose to ride with, both parties can connect in advance via the app’s chat function and funds are held in escrow – reducing counterparty risk.

Mobi will also be building an incentive-driven partner network to enable businesses to connect employees for their commuting needs.

“By incorporating NEM Catapult, Mobi is able to utilize the protocol’s many features to provide an enhanced app experience for commuters. We are always looking for ways to utilize blockchain to promote social change, which is what drew us to this project in the first place. Mobi aims to further the sustainability agenda with a focus on creating long-term shareholder value while driving home the fact that profitability is not a trade-off for sustainability.”

Mobi has a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) tested with a live pilot of approx 200 users and they have confirmed partnerships with 3 major universities across Australia giving access to circa 40,000 potential users to begin scaling.

The app integrates peer-to-peer payments facilitated and will use NEM Catapult’s aggregate transactions as an escrow service, expected to be available shortly after NEM’s public chain Catapult release. Other uses of the NEM blockchain solution are expected to be used to record multi-party payments, loyalty points, and storage of data on carbon emissions and sustainability measures.

“In Melbourne, the first city on our roadmap, there are approximately 2.1 million commuters and 1.3 million car drivers. Mobi bridges this gap by creating a convenient and affordable way to make commuting a more positive experience for all. The app creates a sustainable solution, which can help limit carbon emissions, travel congestion, and free up much-needed parking spaces across densely populated cities. NEM allows this to happen more transparently, efficiently and cost-effectively and we are happy to partner with the community strategically. NEM is built around a powerful system which provides us with direct API access to a specialized set of tested and secure on-blockchain features, and we are aligned in our mission to bring sustainable ridesharing to the masses.”