What Hopthru does

Hopthru provided ridership analytics and National Transit Database (NTD) reporting software to public transit agencies in the United States. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company operated as a small B2B SaaS provider (1–10 employees) focused exclusively on ridership data — helping transit operators analyze passenger boarding and alighting patterns to inform service planning, scheduling decisions, and passenger experience improvements, while automating the labor-intensive federal NTD reporting workflow that transit agencies are required to submit to the Federal Transit Administration.

The company's core product was a ridership analytics platform built around two modules: a Ridership Analysis capability for passenger pattern insights, and an NTD Reporting module for streamlining federal regulatory submissions. Following its August 27, 2024 acquisition by Swiftly, Hopthru's technology was integrated into Swiftly's broader transit data platform — appearing as the "Ridership Dashboard" sub-brand and "Swiftly Ridership" product, accessible via platform.hopthru.com — and combined with Swiftly's real-time passenger information, performance insights, proactive operations, and integrations/APIs modules.

Hopthru's go-to-market was enterprise field sales targeting government transit agencies directly, with named customers including AC Transit, LA Metro, MBTA, WMATA, MDOT MTA, SEPTA, and SoundTransit. The revenue model was subscription-based recurring SaaS; pricing was not publicly disclosed. The company was co-founded by Cole Calhoun (CEO), Daniel Radding, and Stephen Coyner. Post-acquisition, the combined Swiftly-Hopthru entity serves more than 200 transit agencies globally.

Name

Hopthru

Legal name

Hopthru

Website

https://hopthru.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Hopthru provides public transit agencies with ridership analytics and National Transit Database reporting software. Founded in 2017 in San Francisco and acquired by Swiftly in August 2024, the platform now operates as "Swiftly Ridership" within Swiftly's broader transit data suite.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Ridership Analytics SaaS: Subscription-based software providing ridership data analytics and NTD reporting services to transit agencies

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hopthru provides transit agencies with ridership data analytics software to analyze passenger ridership patterns, optimize service planning, and streamline National Transit Database (NTD) federal reporting. Following its August 2024 acquisition by Swiftly, the platform is integrated into the Swiftly Transit Data Platform as the 'Swiftly Ridership' / 'Ridership Dashboard', accessible at platform.hopthru.com.

Product overview

Hopthru is a ridership data and analytics company that was acquired by Swiftly on August 27, 2024. The company offers a ridership analytics platform that helps transit agencies understand passenger ridership patterns, improve service planning, and streamline NTD (National Transit Database) reporting. Following the acquisition, Hopthru's ridership capabilities were integrated into Swiftly's broader transit data platform, which includes real-time passenger information, performance insights, proactive operations, and integrations and APIs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ridership Dashboard: Hopthru's ridership analytics and NTD reporting platform, now integrated into Swiftly's product suite as 'Swiftly Ridership'.

Products and services

• Ridership Analytics Platform Ridership data and analytics platform that provides transit agencies with insights into passenger ridership patterns to improve service planning, optimize operations, and enhance passenger experience.
• NTD Reporting National Transit Database reporting module that enables transit agencies to streamline and automate federal ridership data submissions for compliance with FTA reporting requirements.

Quantifiable outcome

• Streamlined NTD reporting process for transit agencies

Named customers7 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• SwiftlycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 August 2024Swiftly acquired Hopthru to add ridership analysis and NTD reporting capabilities to its transit data platform. The acquisition enables transit agencies to improve service planning, reporting, and passenger experience by integrating ridership insights with existing operational data. This strategic combination streamlines NTD reporting and improves transit efficiency across agencies.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Swiftly: Public transportation data platform that acquired Hopthru in August 2024. Direct overlap in transit-data SaaS for agencies; Swiftly's real-time vehicle tracking, performance insights, and ridership modules are now colocated with Hopthru's ridership analytics, making them the closest direct comparability point.
• Remix by Via: Transit planning and ridership-analysis platform used by transit agencies for service planning and network design. Comparable to Hopthru's ridership-insights and NTD-adjacent analytics use cases, addressing the same public-transit agency buyer.

Emerging players

• Optibus: AI-driven transit scheduling and operations platform serving public and private transit operators. Overlaps with Hopthru/Swiftly in agency-level service-planning optimization where ridership and timetable data drive decisions.
• Spare: Transit microtransit and on-demand transit platform for transit agencies. Comparable as a transit-agency SaaS buyer with overlapping public-sector procurement and ridership/operations data footprints, though more focused on paratransit/microtransit use cases.
• Padam Mobility: On-demand and microtransit platform serving transit agencies in Europe and North America. Adjacent peer for agency ridership and operations data with partial overlap in the public transit GTM motion.

Broad incumbents

• Cubic Transportation Systems: Large incumbent supplier of fare collection, real-time passenger information, and transit operations software to major agencies worldwide. Competes with Hopthru/Swiftly for agency wallet share from a much broader portfolio perspective.
• Trapeze Software (Modaxo): Long-established provider of fixed-route scheduling, CAD/AVL, and transit operations software under the Modaxo transit-tech portfolio. Comparable as incumbent transit-agency software peer with overlapping functionality to Hopthru's service-planning analytics.
• Conduent Transportation: Diversified transit solutions provider with fare collection, mobility, and transit-agency technology offerings. Adjacent competitor for transit agency IT budgets that increasingly bundle analytics and reporting modules.

Others

• Masabi: Mobile ticketing and fare-payment-as-a-service platform for transit agencies. Comparable as a transit SaaS vendor riding the same public-transit procurement wave, though focused on fare rather than ridership/operations analytics.
• Moovit: MaaS and urban mobility data platform owned by Intel, used by transit agencies for rider information and planning. Adjacent comparability via shared buyer (transit agencies) and ridership-adjacent data, though primarily consumer-facing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hopthru
• Facebookfacebook.com/hopthru

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hopthru