Daimler Merges New Mobility Services

Daimler AG is merging its North American RideScout and GlobeSherpa mobility businesses into a new unit of its Moovel Group GmbH operations called Moovel North America.

Austin, Texas-based RideScout, which Daimler bought in 2014, allows users to find the fastest route to a location using public transit and sharing services. RideScout acquired GlobeSherpa, a mobile ticketing service based in Portland, Ore., last year but has operated the business independently until now.

Moovel North America will offer two products: Moovel Transit and RideTap. Moovel Transit, formerly GlobeSherpa’s TransitSherpa platform, is a mobile ticketing app that allows public transit users in select cities to buy tickets remotely, and to connect them to car- and bike-sharing services.

RideTap is a software development kit that allows users of third-party smartphone apps to find the fastest route to a destination via any combination of public transportation and ride-hailing, car-sharing or bike-sharing services. For example, RideTap can be integrated into a restaurant review app to find the fastest way to get to the restaurant. The system currently is being beta-tested in Portland.

Moovel North America will be headed by Nat Parker, who was the co-founder and former CEO of GlobeSherpa. Former RideScout CEO Joseph Kopser was named president of Moovel Group. Both will report to Moovel Group CEO Joerg Lamparter.

Moovel Group also oversees Daimler’s Car2Go car-sharing service and MyTaxi taxi-hailing app.