Brazil-based Buser, which partners with charter bus companies to offer customers safe and low cost travel via its app, raises $138M from LGT, SoftBank, others
Alberto Alerigi Jr / Reuters :
Context & Ripple Effects
Buser's raise extends a decade-long pattern of SoftBank-backed capital flowing into Brazilian platforms that organize existing transport capacity rather than build fleets of their own. The firm first backed ride-hailer 99, which was later bought by Didi Chuxing, and put $100M of Vision Fund money into Loggi's courier-matching round; Uber, meanwhile, has called Brazil its second-largest market and says it is profitable there.
First-order effects
- Buser gains $138M from LGT and SoftBank to expand its app-based charter bus marketplace across Brazil at a time when its investors already know the country's transport economics well.
- SoftBank adds another Brazilian logistics-adjacent bet to a portfolio that now spans ride-hailing, freight delivery, vehicle rental via Kovi, and consumer services like QuintoAndar.
Second-order effects
- Charter bus operators gain an app distribution channel that undercuts per-km pricing of ride-hail trips, pressuring incumbents like Uber and Didi-owned 99 on the long-distance routes buses serve best.
- Asset-light aggregators like Buser and Kovi shift the competitive question in Brazilian mobility from who owns vehicles to who controls demand — favoring the platform layer over fleet owners.
Third-order effects
- If SoftBank's aggregation playbook keeps working — 99 acquired, Loggi scaled, Buser funded — Brazilian mobility consolidates into SoftBank-influenced marketplaces that rent capacity from existing operators instead of employing drivers directly, a structure regulators will eventually have to address.
The trend: SoftBank is systematically funding Brazilian marketplaces that aggregate existing transport and logistics capacity — buses, couriers, rental cars — rather than asset-owning operators.