Zūm announced a $100 million investment from TPG alongside new research highlighting widespread challenges in student transportation, positioning both developments as part of a broader push to modernize the sector.

The investment brings the company’s total funding raised to $430 million and values Zum at $1.7 billion. The investment will support the expansion of its Connected Mobility Experience (CMX) platform, a system that integrates routing, dispatch, workforce management, safety, and communication into a single real-time operating model.

At the same time, Zum released findings from a national study conducted with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, which found that 54% of parents report their child experiences worry or concern about school transportation.

The company describes this as a “Transportation Anxiety Crisis,” driven by delays, lack of visibility, and disruptions that affect students’ daily commutes and readiness to learn. The research estimates these challenges contribute to approximately 55 billion lost instructional minutes annually, or about $15 billion in wasted educational spending.

From Transportation Disruptions to Real-Time Solutions

Additional findings point to the operational and emotional toll of transportation issues: 39% of parents report their child has arrived late due to transportation problems, 18% say their child has missed entire school days, and 66% report worrying when they don’t know their child’s location.

Zum says these challenges stem from fragmented systems that were not designed to operate in real time. Its CMX platform aims to address those gaps by providing real-time tracking, predictive routing, and coordinated communication across stakeholders.

The company currently operates across more than 4,500 schools in 17 states, including districts such as Los Angeles Unified, Boston Public Schools, and San Francisco Unified.

According to Zum, districts using CMX have seen measurable improvements, including an average on-time performance of 98%, 4.9-star parent satisfaction across 1.7 million reviews, and, in some cases, up to a 10% reduction in transportation costs.

CEO Ritu Narayan said the funding will help scale the platform nationwide, emphasizing the need for systems that provide “visibility, coordination, and reliability to daily mobility.”