Via started as a shared-van service in Manhattan and ended up selling software to city governments. Riders on its early app shared rides along the same route for a flat fare. The real business turned out to be the code that matched them. When Via went public in September 2025, hundreds of transit agencies used its software to run on-demand shuttles, paratransit, and school transport, often in places where a fixed bus route made little sense.

From Rides to Routes

Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval founded Via in 2012, with offices in New York and Tel Aviv. The bet was that algorithms could fill vans with riders heading the same way, making a shared ride nearly as convenient as a private one. Via then licensed that system to public transit agencies, which paid it to plan routes and dispatch vehicles. Government contracts became the core of the business.

A Slow Start, Then a Slide

Via priced at $46 a share on September 11, 2025, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as VIA the next day. The stock opened at $44, below its offering price, then recovered to close at $49.51, up about 7.6 percent. Over the following months the shares fell well below the offering price. Via still trades on the NYSE as VIA.

Cover: View of Rome, with via Appia, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Via Appia outside Rome (the road, the name).