Tixora hopes high-tech approach drives bus-ticketing revolution

The Madison startup Tixora hopes to replace the antiquated system of ordering bus tickets by becoming an “Expedia for buses.”

The company, says co-founder Aaron Redlich, is launching its product in January with a Midwest bus company and hopes to bring more regional bus companies onto the platform. The goal, he said, is helping millennials order bus tickets from several companies on one easy-to-use app instead of on each company’s website.

“Everyone’s website is different. Their tickets look different. It’s never the same across any of the carriers,” Redlich said. “Uniting all of those systems onto one platform, that is Tixora. That’s our big objective.”

Tixora was part of the first cohort of gener8tor’s gBETA program, which is aimed at startups with connections to Wisconsin colleges. Redlich, 24, graduated from UW-Madison in 2014, but his two co-founders are still studying computer science there.

It’s not the first time the three co-founders developed a bus app. They partnered on an app that lets Madison Metro riders know when the next bus is coming, using Madison Metro’s tracking technology to provide a free service.

That app is “alive and kicking,” Redlich said, with 15,000 downloads so far and 5,000 daily active users, proving the company can design an app that students rely on.

“That really got us motivated and energized to see if we could tackle an even bigger issue,” Redlich said.

It’s an issue that industry leaders recognize they need to work on, with the American Bus Association hosting a discussion on the topic this September.

“We have to, as an industry, continue to be innovative, and this is another way to be innovative in terms of attracting and finding new passengers who may not have been aware of what the motorcoach industry provides,” ABA spokesman Dan Ronan said.

Tixora’s main competitor in that field is Wanderu, a Boston-based company that’s raised millions since it launched in 2012. Other bus technology companies include Buster, which focuses on group reservations for buses, limos and vans, and Bridj, an Uber-like app that’s helping commuters through shuttles in Boston and Washington D.C.

But the need for such products among small bus companies and Tixora’s early focus on Midwest millennials could help it capture a big chunk of the market, said Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who focuses on transportation and urban planning.

A survey that Schwieterman helped conduct on curbside bus companies found almost half of the passengers surveyed were between 18 to 25 years old, and 73 percent of them were between 18 and 35.

“I think making a website cool is essential for the college kids market, and having a regional focus will allow Tixora to personalize its message a bit more and give it a local flavor,” Schwieterman said.

Redlich also points to one advantage it might have over the more established Wanderu: allowing users to purchase tickets on Tixora directly. Wanderu, on the other hand, aggregates bus schedules and searches potential trips for its users, but it redirects them to the bus company’s website for the purchase itself.

“What we wanted to do is remove that confusion from the user experience,” Redlich said. “Having to hop onto a couple of different websites creates a terribly fragmented user experience.”

So far, Tixora’s been funded through winning several entrepreneurship contests at UW-Madison, including the $10,000 first place award at the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition.

But it’s now looking to raise $250,000 to help grow its product and connect with more bus companies, highlighting its algorithm’s ability to plan bus trips for passengers. Those tools might help increase business for bus companies, Redlich said, as passengers will be able to find out about new companies with one simple schedule search.

Tixora is also hoping to win over college students, especially with a heavy marketing presence on the Midwest campus it’s launching in.

“It’s going to be really exciting for us to get out there and show these bus riders just how easy it is to purchase a ticket,” Redlich said.


— By Polo Rocha
WisBusiness.com