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Passport

“Can a mobility SaaS platform for cities own the full payment and management stack for every curbside transaction — parking, transit, permitting, and citations?”

Founded2010
HQCharlotte, North Carolina, USA
FoundersBob Youakim
Total raised$125M
Latest roundSeries D, December 2019
IndustryVertical SaaS / Smart Cities & Mobility
The story

Founded in 2010 as a mobile parking payment app for cities, Passport evolved into a full mobility management platform covering parking, transit, permitting, and citations. A key strategic pivot was building its own registered PayFac infrastructure (Passport Payments), moving from relying on third-party payment processors to becoming a payments facilitator itself — capturing economics on small-ticket municipal transactions. The company has expanded its addressable market from parking meters to the broader urban mobility and city government software stack, embedding payments as a core revenue layer.

Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2010
Founded in Charlotte, NC as a mobile-based payment platform enabling municipalities to connect directly with citizens for parking payments.· payments
2016
Raised $8M Series B; platform powering major city parking apps including ParkBoston, ParkChicago, and Toronto's Green P.· payments
2017
Raised $43M Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures; expanded into transit ticketing, tolling, and partnerships with OEMs including Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, Ford, and GM.· pivot
2019
Raised $65M Series D, bringing total raised to $125M; expanded into permitting and citation management alongside parking and transit.· banking
2023
Launched Passport Payments as a registered PayFac, offering a self-operated payment facilitation layer for municipalities across all Passport products.· payments
The stack
1 layer disclosed in Passport’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
FinixPassport Payments (self-operated)
Accounting gap: none