Busbud acquires Brazilian bus booking marketplace
Today, Montreal-based Busbud, a global ground travel booking platform, announced the acquisition of Buson, a leading bus booking marketplace in Brazil.
By joining forces, Busbud expands its presence throughout Brazil, the third largest bus market globally, and strengthens its leading position in the Americas. In Brazil, bus travel makes up over 59 per cent of leisure and tourism travel, and the intercity bus market has been rapidly digitalizing in the past few years with the wider adoption of electronic tickets.
Investing in the Americas
As part of the transaction, Kaszek, Buson’s Series A investor and one of the leading investment funds in Latin America will become a shareholder in Busbud alongside Buson CEO and co-founder, Thiago Carvalho and other shareholders of Buson.
Kaszek has backed more than 120 ventures such as Nubank, QuintoAndar, and Kavak with more than $3 billion across nine funds. Busbud continues to invest across the Americas with a strong focus on Latin America. The acquisition of Buson follows Busbud joining forces with Recorrido, the leading intercity bus marketplace in Chile, in November 2022.
Following this acquisition, Recorrido grew net revenue over 100% in the 12 months post-closing and nearly doubled its team from 40 to 75 team members. Busbud now has over 600 partnerships with bus operators in Latin America and thousands globally, and approximately 225 team members worldwide.
About Buson
Buson offers travellers an online B2C marketplace with intercity bus inventory covering the entire country of Brazil, and offers operators B2B solutions such as e-commerce and inventory management software (IMS).
Throughout its 11-year history, Buson has been at the forefront of innovation in the Brazilian intercity bus market and its data-oriented platform has redefined how people travel in Brazil. Acquiring Buson aligns with Busbud’s vision to offer bus operators an omnichannel suite of services that helps operators digitalize their operations and increase their sales reach.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Buson to the Busbud group,” said LP Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Busbud. “We’ve followed Buson’s story since its founding in 2013 as Guiche Virtual, and have been impressed with the inventiveness and resilience of the team and its CEO & Co-founder Thiago. We share the same ambition to revolutionize ground travel through innovation and we have well-aligned product suites that aid the digital transformation of ground travel across the Americas and globally. Together, we will continue to craft transportation experiences that meet the needs of the modern traveler, as well as our trusted operator partners.”
Buson will continue to support bus operators to enhance their operations with digital solutions and expand their online marketing opportunities.
Bus operators working with Buson will benefit from Busbud’s extensive suite of software offerings. This includes comprehensive inventory management and advanced revenue management, among other mission-critical features to help operators sell their tickets through their own sales channel and through Busbud’s group of marketplaces and third-party channels.
Buson maintains its dedication to delivering innovative products for Brazilian operators.
