A woman and two men sit on an open-top red bus in Galway city. They're all wearing blue face coverings and holding signs with the CitySwift logo or a picture of a bus.
From left: Minister Hildegarde Naughton with Alan Farrelly and Brian O’Rourke of CitySwift. Image: Boyd Challenger

CitySwift to create 50 jobs in Galway

29 Sep 2020

Galway-based start-up CitySwift will be hiring for roles in software, data science, sales and marketing over the next two years.

Transport data company CitySwift is expanding its footprint in Galway, more than doubling its headcount with 50 new roles over the next two years.

These jobs will be in the areas of software and data science, as well as sales and marketing. As part of its expansion, the company also plans to move to a bigger headquarters in Galway city centre.

The start-up has developed a cloud-native, data-driven technology platform to optimise urban bus networks. Its data engine has been rolled out in the UK with the aim of improving the operations and customer experience of public transport, and the company has worked with Go Ahead and National Express.

The company was founded in 2016 by former Citibank analyst Brian O’Rourke and bus industry veteran Alan Farrelly. Speaking to Siliconrepublic.com, O’Rourke said: “After seeing massive growth in the usage of our technology, we are planning on expanding globally over the next two years and these new jobs will be instrumental to that growth.

“We are focused on being the world-leading data platform for the public transport industry and enabling the sector to respond to Covid with rapid innovation.”

‘Massive opportunities’

Earlier this year, CitySwift announced that it had raised an additional €2m in funding, having previously raised €1.5m in 2019 under its former name, CitySwifter.

After its most recent funding round, the company rolled out When2Travel, an AI-based tool on its platform that generates dynamic predictions of bus loadings to show passengers how busy their bus is likely to be.

While the company’s tech has been rolled out in the UK, CitySwift said it is looking to bring it to other cities in Europe and North America as transport services emerge from Covid-19 restrictions.

O’Rourke told the Irish Times that while Britain is still the company’s main market, there are “massive opportunities” opening up globally.

“We’ve made good progress in pilot programmes we’re involved in across Europe and there are conversations happening that could see us starting up in the US shortly,” he said. “We also hope to be going live with various operators in Ireland sometime in 2020, which is something we’re very excited about.”

Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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