What do you see as an opportunity or risk over the next six months?    

Earlier this year, Via closed a financing round that valued the company at $3.5bn. This came on the heels of a year of solid performance for the company.    The company ended 2022 ahead of plan, with annualised revenue run-rate surpassing $200m, more than doubling since the previous financing round.  

Cities and transport agencies increasingly turn to digital solutions to improve the efficiency of their transportation system. This will create more opportunities for Via’s innovative technology solutions, which enable transport options that rival the convenience of a personal car while reducing the environmental impact.    

In support of its vision to be the operating system for every aspect of public mobility, Via plans to use the funding to accelerate expansion into new markets and verticals and to continue investing in product innovation.    

Via’s acquisition of Citymapper will offer opportunities for further innovation in TransitTech.  It follows Via’s successful acquisitions of Remix in 2021 and Fleetonomy in 2020. These acquisitions come at a time of strong momentum in the TransitTech industry, with technology and innovation paving the way for a new generation of smart and flexible transportation solutions.   

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?  

As a fast-growing organisation, over the last 12 months, we have been closely looking at how to ensure that the way we work is efficient and scalable, and we have done so without the potentially more extensive resources of larger legal teams. We have innovated in the way in which we negotiate and conclude contracts, how we counsel on product development, and in our vendor management. We did this by building into our team goals, the implementation of efficiency and scalability improvements, and aligning those with our business teams, so we can hold ourselves to account for achieving those improvements. 

Also, our work has been at the largely uncharted interface of transport and technology. This has meant devising innovative legal solutions with limited precedent and addressing novel regulatory questions. Many of Via’s  TransitTech customers in Europe are also public sector bodies. As such, the legal team regularly navigates complex public procurement processes while continually aiming to meet the high expectations and fast pace of a scaling technology company.  

Given that we are often dealing with innovative issues, it has been important that we regularly share knowledge across the team. For example, we have held learning and brainstorming sessions at least weekly and set up issue-based task forces to address novel cross-team questions quickly and effectively. It is important that we work as dynamically and innovatively as the business teams we support.