WILLERS and SWAT Mobility Forms Partnership to Develop a Customer-centric Community Shared Mobility Platform

Singapore, 19 January 2021 - WILLERS Pte. Ltd. (WILLERS) and SWAT Mobility Pte. Ltd. (SWAT) announced today that they will be joining hands to solve mobility challenges in the region. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) marks the first step towards an exciting future in the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) space.

“The collaboration with SWAT is highly valuable and strategic for WILLERS as we realise our vision of innovating transportation services, allowing people to move around anytime and anywhere,” said Shigetaka Murase, Founder and CEO of WILLER Inc (Japan) and WILLERS Pte Ltd (Singapore).

“A sustainable and inclusive transportation is essential in increasing the value and productivity of a city or country, as well as transforming people’s lives. We believe that Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) will be key in managing commuting demands whilst optimising the use of limited resources to solve societal and mobility challenges. These include enhancing connectivity and accessibility, boosting ridership in low density areas, and addressing first-and last-mile challenges.”

WILLERS and SWAT Mobility will jointly develop a community-centric shared mobility service with demand-responsive capability centred on the use of a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform to tackle the challenges in the Asia Pacific region. The MaaS Platform is an adaptation from WILLER Inc , WILLERS’ HQ in Japan. WILLER Inc has been conducting trials of its MaaS app in Hokkaido, Kyoto and Tokyo since 2019 with support from the Japanese government, to complement existing transportation in those regions with new mobility services. SWAT’s AI routing algorithm tops several renowned benchmarks, and the collaboration will leverage SWAT's advanced routing technology to deliver commuting efficiency, a richer customer experience and greater convenience via WILLERS MaaS platform.

WILLERS aims to use its MaaS platform to create new services to complement existing transportation systems and networks to empower commuters to move around freely and easily with affordable commuting options such as demand-responsive shuttle services (including autonomous shuttles), car-sharing and taxi-booking.

A strong synergistic value can be expected from the two companies, through integrations of advanced technologies, use of an innovative MaaS platform and creative targeted marketing to deliver delightful journey experiences for the communities. They will work together to pursue opportunities in APAC, in particular the Southeast Asia region, and bring further benefits to commuters and travellers in the region.

“SWAT Mobility and WILLERS have a shared vision to transform mobility and improve how people move around, and our collaboration brings together our strengths to deliver best-in-class mobility solutions on WILLERS’ MaaS platform. We are extremely excited to collaborate with WILLERS to extend the capabilities of our AI routing technologies to make a positive impact beyond the 7 countries we operate in.”

adds Jarrold Ong, CEO of SWAT Mobility.

SWAT Mobility has a strong track record in delivering employee transport solutions to corporates, and on-demand transport solutions with governments and partners. The Singapore-based company has expanded to 7 markets in 5 years across the APAC region, including Australia, Japan, and the Philippines. SWAT has pioneered smart employee transportation solutions for industrial parks, airports and offices in remote locations. Its technology is currently helping city governments solve the first-mile, last-mile problem and companies with transport optimisation, including supporting on-demand shuttles for travelling salespeople.

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About WILLERS PTE. LTD. ‍

WILLERS Pte. Ltd. was established in Singapore in 2018 as the subsidiary of WILLER Inc Group of Japan, and as the Headquarter (HQ outside Japan) overseeing the operations, business development and marketing for the Asia Pacific (AP) region. WILLERS aims to overcome mobility challenges and deliver seamless and new mobility services that are not only simple and convenient to use, but also comfortable and inspiring in the AP region. Besides operating autonomous vehicles and car-sharing services in Singapore currently, it also has operations in Vietnam and Taiwan providing intercity express bus operations and booking platform, and travel services respectively.

WILLER Inc was established in 1994 to provide society- and community-centric transportation and travel services. WILLER develops and operates one of the largest unified e-commerce platform - WiLL System, in Japan that allows users to book transport tickets and places of attractions with the integration of creative targeted marketing strategies and technologies. In addition, WILLER also operates Japan’s largest intercity bus networks, a railway in Kyoto and unique restaurant buses that offers local cuisine in different areas.

For media inquiries, please contact pr-info@willers.com.sg

About SWAT Mobility Pte. Ltd.

SWAT Mobility Pte Ltd (SWAT) is a Singapore-based smart mobility solution firm that provides demand-responsive and ride-sharing technology in high capacity vehicles. With the belief that efficient transport is a fundamental right, SWAT endeavours to use its core mobility engine to improve the way people commute, ease congestion and improve their quality of life.

Founded in 2016, SWAT has completed over a million dynamically routed rides worldwide for commuters. The firm’s solutions are used by clients across Asia Pacific, including Toyota Corporation, Transportation for New South Wales and Sembcorp Marine. Since its inception, the firm has garnered more than US$12 million in funding from investors such as the ComfortDelGro Ventures, Goldbell Group, iGlobe Partners, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) Investments, EDB New Ventures, SMRT Momentum Ventures and the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC).

The company is headquartered in Singapore, with operations across seven markets including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

For media inquiries, please contact press@swatmobility.com