Tampa, FL, June 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BusPatrol, the leader in school bus safety technology, today announced an investment from Weatherford Capital, a technology and business-to-government focused investment firm. Will Weatherford, cofounder of Weatherford Capital and Former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, will join the Board with GI Partners and FIT Ventures to drive the next chapter of BusPatrol’s growth. 

“We are excited to welcome Weatherford Capital to BusPatrol’s safety mission,” said CEO Karoon Monfared. “Their deep sector expertise and investment will further accelerate our industry-disrupting approach to delivering public safety with modernizing technology. I look forward to working with Will and his team as we continue our rapid scaling.”

Since its establishment in 2017, BusPatrol has led the stop-arm safety solution market. The company collaborates with school districts, law enforcement agencies, and municipalities to combat illegal and dangerous passes of stopped school buses. BusPatrol equips its partners with cutting-edge technology, offering a fully turnkey platform for capturing and processing violations, along with cloud-connected internal cameras and telematics data for school districts to ensure the safety of their students.

Managing Director Will Weatherford emphasized, “BusPatrol is a cutting-edge public safety company that is bringing innovation to pupil transportation in Florida and across the country. As a former public official, what most attracted me to BusPatrol is their ability to deploy tailored community partnerships that actually make our children safer—and to do it on an unmatched scale in the industry.”

Jerry Stapp, Managing Director from GI Partners, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, “We’re excited to have Weatherford Capital, Will, and the rest of their team join us on this journey. We look forward to partnering to further accelerate BusPatrol’s explosive growth.”

Weatherford Capital’s investment comes at a landmark moment for BusPatrol, just several months after a significant growth investment from GI Partners and as it expands its community partnerships.

About BusPatrol
BusPatrol is a safety technology company with the mission of making the journey to and from school safer for the 27 million children who step onboard a school bus each day. BusPatrol's safety programs create a culture of responsibility around illegal passes. BusPatrol’s equity first approach protects every child on every bus in its partner communities while modernizing fleets with the latest cutting-edge safety technology. For more information, please visit www.buspatrol.com.  

About Weatherford Capital
Founded by Will, Sam, and Drew Weatherford in 2015, Weatherford Capital is a private investment firm with over $1 billion of assets under management. The firm has transacted 23 platform investments across various sectors, including technology, financials, and business & consumer services. Weatherford Capital specializes in companies operating in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G), and other highly regulated industries. The firm has offices in Tampa and Dallas. For more information, visit www.weatherfordcapital.com.

About GI Partners
Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm with over 150 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Greenwich, Scottsdale, and London. The firm has raised more than $42 billion in capital and invests on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world through its private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the healthcare, services, and software sectors. The real estate strategy focuses primarily on technology and life sciences properties as well as other specialized types of real estate. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com.  

About FIT Ventures
FIT Ventures is a family office investment firm headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, with offices in Boca Raton, Florida. The firm oversees and manages a variety of investments focusing on private equity, real estate, and public equities. The management team of the fund is comprised of professionals with extensive experience in supporting all aspects of M&A and corporate finance activities. For more information, please visit www.fitventures.com.

Attachments

• BusPatrol team
• Stop-arm camera

Kate Spree
BusPatrol
kate.spree@buspatrol.com

Drew Weatherford
Weatherford Capital
drew@weatherfordcapital.com

Gretchen Robinson
GI Partners
pr@gipartners.com

 Daniel Sebag
FIT Ventures
daniel@fitventures.com