Mobility Signage, a Munich-based software startup focused on digital infrastructure for public transport, has closed a €1.8 million pre-seed funding round. The investment was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Germany’s most active early-stage venture fund, with co-participation from 2bX, a Berlin-based UrbanTech-focused fund. Founded in 2023 by Stefan Rademacher and Dominik Nouri, the company is building a central data architecture designed to connect the fragmented, vendor-specific IT systems that underpin most of Europe’s public transport networks, without requiring operators to replace what is already in place.
The company was selected as one of six finalists to pitch at The Smart Deal 2025, Kurrant’s investment competition held live at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona in November 2025, where it competed before a jury of leading smart city venture investors and industry partners
A Structural Problem Decades in the Making
Public transport operators across Europe have accumulated layers of incompatible IT systems over decades, each introduced by a different vendor at a different time and each operating in relative isolation. Scheduling software does not communicate with passenger information systems. Disruption alerts generated in one platform do not propagate consistently to station displays, onboard screens, or mobile applications. The result is a fragmented operational picture that creates both inefficiency for staff and unreliable information for passengers.
The challenge has intensified as ridership expectations have shifted. Passengers increasingly expect real-time, consistent information across every channel they use, from physical departure boards to journey planning apps. Transport authorities under staffing pressure cannot absorb the manual coordination burden that fragmented IT landscapes impose.
What the Platform Does
Mobility Signage positions its product as an integration layer rather than a replacement system. The platform connects to a transport operator’s existing infrastructure through standardized interfaces, ingests data from scheduling, operations management, and passenger information systems, and consolidates it into a single data architecture that serves as the authoritative source of record. From that layer, data is redistributed to all output channels simultaneously: station displays, onboard screens, public address systems, and digital platforms.
The platform’s initial application modules focus on two of the most operationally demanding recurring scenarios: construction site notifications, which require coordinated updates across multiple display and communication channels, and real-time disruption management, where inconsistency between channels is most visible to passengers. Additional functions supported by the platform include timetable generation, device monitoring, and content distribution across operator networks.
Because the architecture is hardware-independent and vendor-neutral, operators can integrate existing equipment from multiple manufacturers without being locked into a single supplier ecosystem.
Early Customer Traction in Germany
Despite being less than three years old, Mobility Signage is already live with several of Germany’s most significant transit operators. Its confirmed customer base includes Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Berlin’s primary transit authority and one of the largest in Europe; Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen (SSB), the operator covering Stuttgart’s tram and bus network; Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national rail operator; and Rostocker Straßenbahn (RSAG), a regional operator in the north of the country. The spread across large urban authorities and smaller regional networks indicates that the platform’s modular design is viable at different operational scales. Hardware manufacturers have also entered development partnerships with the company, suggesting early supply-chain alignment with the open architecture approach.
Investor Rationale and Market Context
HTGF’s investment reflects a thesis around the structural underinvestment in back-end transit IT. Transport operators face a combination of workforce shortages, growing passenger numbers, and ageing infrastructure without the budget or disruption tolerance to execute wholesale system replacements. Tizian Hoppen, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, framed the rationale around the company’s ability to address these compounding pressures through a modular, integration-first architecture rather than a rip-and-replace model.
The global Intelligent Transport Systems market provides the broader commercial context. Industry estimates put the market at approximately €56.5 billion, with bus and tram systems in Europe representing a meaningful share of that figure. Demand drivers include increasing ridership, digitization pressure across public services, and regulatory expectations around real-time passenger communication. The integration software segment within ITS remains less capitalized than front-end passenger applications, which is where Mobility Signage is positioning.
2bX, the co-investor, focuses specifically on UrbanTech ventures addressing city-scale infrastructure challenges including transport, climate, and quality of life. Its involvement alongside HTGF reflects a broader venture interest in the European urban infrastructure software category.
Use of Capital
The fresh capital will fund team expansion and accelerate development of Mobility Signage’s Data Hub and application layer, with particular emphasis on scaling real-time passenger information and disruption management capabilities across transport networks in Europe. The company’s stated long-term ambition is to function as the foundational software operating system for public transport information infrastructure across the continent.
