Kolors paid $12M cash for Urbvan, a van-pool business its rival Swvl was shedding

Kolors is a Mexico City startup connecting intercity bus riders with small and medium bus operators; Urbvan runs B2B van and shuttle pooling for companies.

Adding corporate van pooling to intercity bus tickets lets Kolors serve business travelers door to door and grow B2B clients to $100M annualized revenue.

$12 million cash, funded by an undisclosed pre-Series B round that doubled Kolors' valuation to nine figures

Kolors, founded by Rodrigo Martinez and Anca Gardea, partners with existing scheduled bus services and puts its own employee on board each bus to check in passengers, take cash and sell snacks. Urbvan was previously owned by Dubai-based Swvl, which bought it in July 2022 to expand in Mexico.

Sources told TechCrunch Swvl, which listed through a SPAC in 2021, had been selling parts of its business internationally for a year as it struggled. Martinez said Urbvan was already profitable and growing, so it was unclear why Swvl sold; Swvl did not reply. Kolors used its pre-Series B money for the purchase.

The combined service covers 40 cities in Mexico, with Urbvan in 24 of them. The Urbvan app will stay standalone until Kolors launches its own app at the end of 2023 to merge intercity and van services. Kolors expected over 5 million passengers by end of 2023 and over $100M annualized revenue within 12-18 months; it hopes to use Urbvan clients to reach the US and other regions by late 2024.

Door-to-door vans connect business travelers within cities, which complements Kolors' intercity buses.

About 30% of Kolors passengers already travel for work with employer-paid tickets, so B2B is a ready market.

Urbvan was profitable and growing, per Kolors, with hundreds of B2B clients and an asset-light model like its own.

Swvl was selling parts of its business internationally, and Kolors paid for Urbvan out of a pre-Series B round that doubled its valuation.

When a larger rival retreats from a market, a smaller local operator with fresh funding can buy a profitable asset that fills a gap in its own product.

As of 2023-09-13 the deal was announced; the Urbvan app continues as a standalone product until Kolors' merged app launches at the end of 2023. Revenue and US expansion goals are Kolors' own projections. TechCrunch could not obtain Swvl's reason for selling.