ZF acquires mobility provider 2getthere

ZF Friedrichshafen AG has acquired a 60% share of 2getthere B.V. The company offers complete automated transport systems and is located in Utrecht/Netherlands, with offices in San Francisco, Dubai and Singapore.

Applications range from driverless electric transport systems at airports, business and theme parks to dedicated urban transport infrastructures. With this strategic investment, ZF is executing its Next Generation Mobility strategy to strengthen its foothold in the Mobility as a Service and automated guided vehicle growth markets, and complements its existing activities.

“2getthere has more than three decades of experience in the market for autonomous passenger transport vehicles as well as unique engineering and software competences. This acquisition supports our strategy to become a leading autonomous transportation systems supplier in the booming new mobility market”, said Wolf-Henning Scheider, Chairman of the Board of Management at ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

With its strategic investment, ZF is strengthening its position in the growth markets of Mobility-as-a-Service solutions, autonomous transport systems, and shared autonomous vehicles. The majority stake in 2getthere complements ZF's existing investments and co-operations, such as the e.GO Moove, a joint venture with e.GO Mobile AG, which targets the production of the e.GO Mover autonomous minibus, as well as Transdev, a leading operator and global provider of integrated mobility solutions.

2getthere was founded in 1984. Since then 2getthere accumulated more than 100 million kilometres of autonomous mileage with driverless passenger and cargo transport systems in several major cities worldwide, including Rotterdam, Abu Dhabi and Singapore, as well as numerous ports and airports. 2getthere' s driverless systems, in revenue service at business park Rivium (Capelle aan den IJssel) and Masdar City (Abu Dhabi) have transported more than 14 million people, fully electric and reliable. The reliability of the systems installed by 2getthere, including vehicle controls and software architecture, exceeds 99.7%.

“The market for driverless electric transport systems is developing dynamically. We want to continue to lead the market and the involvement of ZF is helping us to realise our growth plans, accelerate our technology roadmap and provide the required security for new and existing customers,” said Carel C. van Helsdingen, founder and CEO of 2getthere. “The technological cooperation with ZF will support 2getthere's work for the delivery of mixed traffic applications like Rivium and Brussels Airport.” Looking at the past three years alone, the company's revenue has increased by 60 percent.

In the future, ZF and 2getthere will closely work together to further develop technologies for autonomous transport systems.

“We have developed into a complete systems supplier for automated functions and we are therefore in a perfect position to support 2getthere. We can deliver electric drivelines, solutions for sensor technology, high performance computing, and actuators for all levels of automated applications,” explained Scheider.

Conversely, ZF will also benefit from the vast field experience of the Dutch company and its extensive engineering and software competences when it comes to configuring and implementing complete autonomous transport systems. 2getthere's engineering and software development teams in Utrecht are expected to grow significantly over the next years, approximately doubling the current 60 employees.

The two companies agreed not to disclose the transaction volume.