A charter bus startup that has its roots in Atlanta is opening a second headquarters in Austin.
CharterUp LLC is calling Austin its technology and product HQ and plans to create more than 100 jobs here in the coming year.
The company is keeping its Atlanta office, and founder and CEO Armir Harris said he hasn’t decided whether the company will ultimately call either one of the cities its primary headquarters. But, for now, he said he’s spending most of his time in Austin, and the startup has added a few Austin tech veterans to its executive team.
CharterUp, founded in Atlanta in 2018, has developed into a two-sided business. On one is a chartering platform and online marketplace, used by customers. On the other, the company sells its software to bus companies for their own use. It has more than 600 bus services using the software, which allows on-demand access to available charters, ratings, safety records and vehicle tracking.
Government organizations tend to be CharterUp’s biggest customers. School districts, including Austin's, use the service. Other customers in the Austin area include H-E-B and Samsung. Individual customers also use the platform to book buses for bachelor and bachelorette parties, weddings and other big outings.
The company’s website shows its operates in roughly 30 cities, including Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Plano. In March, CharterUp expanded its services to New York City, adding more than 220 business through partnerships with roughly 30 local charter operators.
Harris said the company has a revenue run rate of more than $150 million.
The company raised its first venture funding round in October, a $60 million injection led by Austin-based Tritium Partners. The company usually does private equity and growth equity rounds, but this served as a series A funding for CharterUp.
As CharterUp ramped up remote hiring last year, it noticed an especially high number of new hires concentrated in Austin. That was perhaps partially driven by the company’s local investors.
"The combination of current employees in Austin, as well as the great growth story that we have, allowed us to really build momentum in the Austin market," Harris said.
CharterUp’s Austin office is inside a coworking space at 500 W. Second St. It currently has more than 20 people from tech and product teams working out of the office. Employees are generally in the office Tuesday through Thursday, and work remotely Monday and Friday.
Execs plan to hire about 100 people, mostly in tech and product roles, by the end of 2023.
Most recently, CharterUp added Brian Showers as chief technology officer. He was most recently CTO at Santé Capital Management, and was previously senior vice president of engineering at Dosh and VP of engineering at RetailMeNot. He’ll lead the company’s hiring efforts in the Austin area.
The company also hired Nick Donelson as VP of product. He was most recently senior director of product at Leafly, and before that was head of product at Spreetail and director of product management at Walmart. CharterUp added Evan Hopkins as VP of supply; he was previously VP of global sales and customer operations at Outdoorsy.
"With this new headquarters, we're going to focus on our technology and product," Harris said. "And we believe there's tremendous growth still left."
