If you’re going to build a purpose, make it a great one, it’s the only thing that will keep you going through all the ups and downs. TRAFI’s co-founder, Martynas Gudonavicius has never simply wanted to create a successful startup, instead he envisioned a product that would use the most accurate data to increase the usage of public transportation. Moreover, Trafi stepped up in boosting Lithuania’s name in the startup world. This is the story of TRAFI– the world’s most accurate public transport journey planner out there.

TRAFI is a public transport app designed to plan journeys using real time processing of traffic, scientific algorithms and machine learning. Additional use of crowd-sourced reports allows them to predict journey durations and arrival times nearly 200% more accurately than any other competitor and local transit authority. Company’s ability to offer exceptional data quality and accuracy are the key components to success in this business.

It has recently closed a $6.5 million Series A funding round led by Octopus Investments EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme, along with Baltcap and previous investor Practica Capital. Clearly, the Lithuanian startup TRAFI is rapidly emerging as the go-to transit app for emerging markets.

Chaotic & Unpredictable Data – TRAFI Sees Potential

Nearly 300,000 unique commuters and travelers on a monthly basis in Lithuania alone, where the app was originally launched, already take advantage of this app which estimates the most convenient and expedient travel modes, including public transit, taxi, bicycle routes and walking. Additionally, today TRAFI helps to plan millions of journeys in Latvia, Estonia, Turkey and Brazil.

TRAFI may not always take the easy way, but they always find one. Although competitors limit themselves to their own defined data feed formats, Lithuanian startup takes up a different approach. This allows them to cover places in the high-growth emerging markets, where transit data is not necessarily easy to access, but on the contrary, is still very chaotic and unpredictable. Therefore, when such transit giants as Google or Apple turn away, TRAFI takes on the challenge to fix the core problem – the accuracy of public transport data.

Thus, their expansion over the upcoming 24 months will be razor focused on the emerging markets around the world and multi-million population cities like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Moscow, etc. TRAFI views these places as the priority markets, because the lack of investments from the major competitors in these areas offers the perfect environment to grow and develop their app, since the pressure is low. Additionally, local communities appreciate TRAFI, because it helps them to navigate in their cities much more conveniently and reliably than before.

Always Keeping Your Bar High

TRAFI’s success is determined by the quality which is very significant in today’s world – they never compromise the quality of a product or the competence of a new team member. “The most important thing is to keep the bar high. Always,” – says Martynas. “Even though sometimes it takes a long time to find a solution or the right person for the job,” – he adds. Currently, TRAFI has fifteen members, more than half of the team have international work experience, and hold fantastic academic records from the world renowned universities like Cambridge, MIT, University of Amsterdam, etc.

TRAFI’s co-founder encourages other young entrepreneurs to be resilient while encountering challenges and find the right people to trust. “It is bumpy as hell with lots of ups and downs, but it is very exciting as well,” – claims Martynas. He suggests to look for advisors and angels as soon as possible. Also, he encourages young startups to give them a generous amount of equity, which is definitely going to pay off massively. “The respectable industry veterans, and previously successful startup founders across VC’s tend to have good networks and loads of respect therefore they can open the doors you have never even dreamed of,” – notes Martynas.

Hobby Project Turned Into A Big Business

“Idea was born about 7 years ago when our CTO Jurgis created the very first route search algorithm for public transportation.” This was the story behind the website called marsrutai.lt. In fact, now the young men admit that for almost five years they viewed it only as a very successful hobby project, and only two years ago, they decided to turn it into a proper business.

However, the establishment of a new startup is a difficult process, thus it may be quite stressful. The stress can be overwhelming especially considering that the very defining moment for a startup comes up at the very beginning of the process, when preparing one’s new pitch. Martynas admits that TRAFI’s first pitch for investors was quite different from the final ones. Based on his experience, the most common mistake that young entrepreneurs make is the large amount of text in the pitch deck. If one needs to deliver a significant amount of information, he advises to use numbers and graphs.

“That’s how startups are trying to cover their growth problems. Problem, Team, Retention, Engagement and Traction  definitely constitute the crucial parts of any pitch, however in many instances faith in one’s idea is what makes all the difference,” – claims Martynas. Yet, often simply spreading one’s idea across the room, where you are pitching, can lead you to success. “I have always believed and still strongly believe in the idea of increasing the use of public transportation with the help of TRAFI – says the company’s co-founder. “No one can stop you from being successful except yourself.”

As a matter of fact, if TRAFI runs a survey to see if people started to use public transportation more often after they have discovered TRAFI app, in any active market, the result is always overwhelmingly positive.

Tomorrow’s Public Transit Leader

Lithuania hosts one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in Europe. TRAFI not only helps to boost this image, but also increases its potential to expand going forward as well.

According to Martynas, the image of the Lithuanian startups in the world is undoubtedly getting better. “When I talk to a startup tech community or VC’s anywhere in Europe, they are already able to recognize the name of Lithuania. It is mostly due to the success stories of Vinted and Pixelmator.” Trafi is creating their own success story today, and they are doing it very effectively. Although Martynas remains modest, he is confident: “I would not say that we are massively successful yet, but we are on a good track to become tomorrow’s leader in the emerging markets.”