Meet Ritu Narayan, whose transportation startup has revolutionized the US school bus system with technology, becoming a $1.7 billion unicorn

Zum, a student transportation company cofounded by Ritu Narayan, has transformed the school bus system in the USA by leveraging technology to improve efficiency and safety. Facing personal challenges with her children's school transportation, Narayan, along with her brothers Vivek and Abhishek Garg, launched Zum in 2015. The company utilizes a platform that connects buses and shuttles via tablets and GPS to an app, allowing parents and teachers to track vehicles. Zum has grown into a unicorn, valued at $1.7 billion after raising $430 million in funding, with revenues reaching $333 million in 2025. The company's success highlights the disorganization within the existing $40 billion US school bus system, which struggles with driver shortages and inconsistent approaches.

Ritu Narayan's journey began when she faced difficulties getting her young children to daycare and school without missing work meetings. The lack of school bus services, combined with Bay Area traffic and unreliable part-time help, mirrored a problem her own mother had encountered as an educator in India. This personal struggle led Narayan to leave her position at eBay in 2013 to address this issue for parents nationwide.

Zum, initially named Liftee, started as a ride-sharing service for children with enhanced security measures. While it served a wealthy demographic in the Bay Area and secured contracts with 30 private schools, it did not scale effectively. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for Narayan to pivot the business model. Zum was reorganized into a district-wide enterprise platform capable of both deploying and digitally tracking a fleet of school buses.


The company now operates by leasing bus yards, purchasing buses and shuttle vans, and connecting them through technology. Parents and teachers can monitor bus locations and estimated arrival times via a user-friendly app. This technological integration aims to streamline the student transportation process, which is a significant part of K-12 education spending in the USA, amounting to nearly $40 billion annually.

Zum's growth is a testament to the inefficiencies in the current school bus system. Issues such as driver shortages and varied state regulations mean that not all students have access to traditional yellow school buses. Many rely on parents, guardians, or public transit. Miriam Rivera, cofounder and managing director of Ulu Ventures, noted the surprise at the market's complexity and the significant number of children needing transportation.

“I had no idea how big and complicated this market really was. We’re talking about 26 million kids getting driven to and from school, to and from after-school sports,” said Miriam Rivera.

Zum's operational model involves managing the physical aspects of a school bus operator, including bus maintenance and driver hiring. However, it also employs AI to optimize existing bus routes, leading to savings in time, mileage, and cost. The app provides real-time updates on bus locations, color-coded to indicate punctuality.

Beyond transportation, Zum is also exploring the energy sector by integrating electric buses. The company addresses the higher cost of electric buses by enabling the selling of excess energy capacity back to the grid. This initiative aims to reduce the overall cost of electrification for school districts. Currently, less than 2% of the half a million school buses in the US are electrified.

Oakland Unified School District recently became the first in the nation to fully electrify its bus fleet, with all 74 buses equipped for bidirectional charging. Since August 2024, Zum has facilitated this ecosystem.

“School buses are the ideal assets to be electrified. They have a very predictable local commute pattern. When they are not used for transportation in the evenings, they can be brought back to the yard and plugged back in to give energy back to the grid,” said Narayan to GIC in April 2025.

“In just the first five days of going live, we provided 1.9 megawatt (MW) [of] power back to the grid. Our goal is 2.1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the entire year, which can power hundreds of homes in Oakland,” she added.

While Zum's contracts may have higher upfront costs compared to traditional providers, the technology leads to long-term savings for school districts. For instance, a fleet-and-route analysis for San Francisco Unified School District, as part of a five-year, $150 million contract, reduced the district's bus requirement from 236 to 193, resulting in annual savings of $3.5 million.

“Anytime [SFUSD] had a new need, they would just add one more bus to the road. We went in and optimised the system,” she said.

Kimberly Raney, executive director of transportation at Oakland Unified School District, described the pre-Zum era as highly inefficient. In 2016, communication relied heavily on telephones and fax machines, with delays in updating pickup locations.

“It ran very much like the 1940s and ’50s and ’60s,” she said.

This changed when OUSD signed an $11.2 million-a-year, five-year contract with Zum in 2024, rendering fax machines obsolete for such communications. Zum's technology has modernized operations, moving away from outdated methods to a digital, efficient system. The company's expansion continues, with schools in 18 states currently using its technology, and Narayan expressing confidence in reaching all 50 states.