Taking hours to get to that long-awaited concert; getting stuck in an eternal traffic jam to leave the stadium; arriving late to work due to traffic or train problems. These are everyday situations in a city like Barcelona and its metropolis, against which BusForFun stands to propose an alternative: shared mobility by coach through optimized routes.
To do this, the company adds a layer of technology to the classic activity of collective transport, with its own algorithm that designs routes based on the destination and origin of users. With this algorithm, the company manages the mobility of large events and companies through third-party fleets, and it doesn't stop there: it not only draws the routes, but also develops mobility plans for large events, to distribute flows and ensure fluidity: "We are a mobility partner," summarizes Dilmer Alvarado from BusForFun.
The company, in fact, was born in Venice ten years ago, focused on events such as concerts and sports events. With the pandemic, it added business mobility to its services, to bring workers closer to their companies. The process begins with BusForFun building a home-to-work mobility plan, and designing routes that depart from points close to employees' homes —in fact, 86% have a departure point less than five kilometers from their home—.
The platform also allows adapting the service to needs, even modifying the type of vehicle depending on the number of passengers: "If a company needs a 50-seater bus in the morning, a van in the afternoon, and a taxi later, it adapts." And the platform does not require long advance notices or logistical complications: it constantly updates and adapts the service every day for the next. Thus, it highlights its "flexibility," with which it can group people from different companies working in the same industrial park or trace a long route to see Rosalía at the Palau Sant Jordi from Amposta.
After the launch of this second business line linked to business mobility, the Italian company has added new verticals, such as a technological one and another aimed at taking families to sporting events. International expansion arrived in mid-2024, when the company born in Venice decided to take its first step beyond Italy, precisely, in Barcelona. "It was the first due to its cosmopolitan and open character, and it is the spearhead of BusForFun's expansion," highlights Alvarado.
From its headquarters in Barcelona, the company has opened a commercial office in Madrid and has managed projects in Portugal, in an international expansion in which BusForFun has also landed in Paris and Switzerland. The objective, according to Alvarado, is clear: "We are already the company that contracts the most bus services in Italy, and we want to be so throughout Europe."
This contracting of vehicles comes precisely because BusForFun rules out operating its own fleet: it works with local fleets. With a team of 100 employees, the company has moved more than 19,000 passengers since its inception. "We have removed 13,000 vehicles from the roads, with 100,000 kilos of Co2 that have stopped being emitted," says Alvarado.
Now, these figures will grow rapidly: BusForFun Italia centralizes the management of mobility for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games. In the Barcelona metropolis, the company has been in charge of mobility for events such as Sonar and appointments at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, not only taking buses to the entrance, but also designing the mobility plan in coordination with the authorities, and always on routes that seek to go beyond a transfer, and offer a fun experience surrounded by people who share interests: "It is not uncommon to get off the bus with new friends."