Bosch Acquires Startup SPLT to ‘Develop and Sell Mobility Services’
Manufacturing automotive parts supplier Robert Bosch GmbH acquired business-to-business ridesharing startup SPLT last month to form a new mobility unit that will focus on vehicle-sharing, ridesharing, and connectivity-based services.
Founded in 2014, Detroit-based SPLT — a ridesharing platform for coworkers — will remain an independent entity within the Bosch Group and be run as a wholly owned subsidiary. “[The acquisition] is more broadly part of the Bosch strategy to develop and sell digital mobility services,” Tim Wieland, a Bosch spokesman, told Auto Finance News.
SPLT also plans to add a carshare offering into its platform, which will be developed throughout 2018, the company’s founder and Chief Executive Anya Babbitt told AFN. Carsharing will allow co-workers to carpool to work via SPLT’s platform, then list the vehicle up for carshare while at work for other consumers or enterprises to rent.
SPLT has received a total of $1.3 million in funding, according to CrunchBase, including from InMotion Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover. SPLT has 140,000 users and a team of 25 people in Latin America, the U.S., and Europe. The company will continue to expand its customer base in Latin America and Europe throughout 2018.
