Mobility group seeks public transport contracts with LatAm capitals

Technologies like sensors, security cameras, electronic ticketing and traffic monitoring systems are ubiquitous in most Latin American cities.

Often, however, these technologies are not connected to each other. Green4T, founded in Brazil and with operations in several cities in the region, is betting on this business niche.

Through its subsidiary Scipopulis, the company provided a free transit data integration platform during the pandemic for cities such as Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, São Paulo and six other Brazilian cities. The company expects to close contracts with these cities by the end of the year. 

“We've been working with data analytics for transport and smart cities for a long time, and we saw transport departments were totally lost. The transport networks were not designed to operate under pandemic conditions – many of which persist – with unequal passenger demand and uneven lines in terms of occupation,” Scipopulis CEO Roberto Speicys told BNamericas.

Scipopulis’ Trancity Panel, the solution offered during the pandemic, is a machine-learning powered tool for the management, planning and operation of the transport system with real-time and historical information.

According to Speicys, factors such as the geolocation of buses, number of vehicles available per line, number of passengers per line, and public data such as images from cameras are considered. The data is processed on cloud servers and made available to public administrations via dashboards.

“The fleet management systems currently in use in cities are either very outdated or limited in scope, too centered on GPS displacement. What we do is work with this data, include others, and add intelligence to provide more visibility to the public manager.”

Currently, the platform manages more than 7,000 buses in Latin America. 

Scipopulis has other mobility projects in use, some of which financed with IDB resources.

The company also has developed platforms aimed at managing public transport carbon emissions. In the long term, the company wants its solutions to become part of smart cities’ broader systems.

UITP

Speicys was recently elected to the board of the international public transport association UITP.

With 1,800 members from 100 countries, UITP brings together city managers, operators, transport companies and the supply industry. Scipopulis gained visibility for the Trancity platform through UITP.

In March, UITP held its annual Latin America Week, gathering mayors and providers from the region’s major capitals. 

In its post-event document, the entity urged cities to invest in urban mobility to ensure sustained service provision, safe transport and "a green, just and sustainable recovery" from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s therefore important to call for fundamental changes, in particular with respect to revenue models for public transport operators that are still dependent on fares paid by passengers. Other stable sources to fund investments and operations should now be considered urgently.”

Founded in 2015 and present in 12 countries, Scipopulis’ parent Green4T offers IT infrastructure on and off premise, specialized services and cloud services for governments and businesses, among others.

Green4T also claims to have helped implement more than 950 datacenters in Latin America.

Green4T reports more than 3bn reais (US$574mn) worth of projects delivered in the last seven years.