Transportant grows school bus safety platform with support from Wisconsin

As school districts across the country continue to struggle with transportation staffing shortages and student safety concerns, a Kansas-based technology company with deep Wisconsin ties is expanding its footprint in the K-12 transportation market.

Founded in 2017 and based in Lenexa, Kansas, Transportant develops a fleet-management and safety platform designed for school bus operations. The company’s system combines live-streaming cameras, ridership tracking, real-time GPS, parent communication tools and AI-enabled monitoring into a single platform aimed at helping school districts improve safety and communication around student transportation.

According to PitchBook, the company has raised $7.63 million to date. Wisconsin investors including Golden Angels Investors and Wisconsin Investment Partners have backed the company. Tim Keane, retired director of Golden Angels Investors, serves on the board.

The company’s Wisconsin connections extend beyond investors.

According to the company, Transportant’s platform is used across 87 school districts on more than 2,500 buses in 19 states, including Wisconsin. The company is working with Wisconsin-based Kobussen Buses, and the system is being used in the Marshfield, New Richmond and Sun Prairie districts.

Additionally, CEO Martin Staples leads the company remotely from Milwaukee. He first became involved with Transportant as an angel investor and later consulted with the company on manufacturing and supply chain operations before joining its board.

“I love the mission,” Staples said. “Who can’t be excited about keeping kids safe riding a school bus?”

Staples became CEO in 2021 following the death of co-founder John Styers. The company was founded by Styers and cybersecurity entrepreneur Alan Fairless, founder of SpiderOak.

Before joining Transportant full-time, Staples spent more than two decades at Emerson Electric in global operations and manufacturing leadership roles. He said the company’s hardware-based platform created operational challenges early on because the founding team came from software and sales backgrounds rather than manufacturing.

Prior to Staples joining the team, the company had no sales organization, limited capital, and was navigating a severe global supply chain disruption. Under Staples’ leadership, the company rebuilt portions of its hardware platform, expanded its sales organization and continued growing its customer base.

Transportant’s platform is designed not only to improve student safety, but also to help districts better support drivers and transportation staff. This is welcome news to districts nationwide as the industry continues to face school bus driver shortages.

A 2024 Wisconsin Policy Forum report found the state experienced a 17.7% decline in licensed school bus drivers over the last 15 years, while more than one-fifth of licensed school bus drivers were age 65 or older. School districts across the state have reported difficulty filling routes, and state agencies have publicly described it as a “critical shortage”. The shortage can lead to delayed pickups, route disruptions, and added stress for families who rely on bus service.

Staples believes Transportant can help address the labor shortage by providing tools that make the job easier, citing a significant decrease in student misbehavior on buses where the system is being used.

The company’s platform allows districts to monitor buses in real time, communicate directly with drivers, track student ridership and provide parents with mobile updates showing bus locations and arrival times. Transportant’s live-streaming camera system also allows transportation departments and school administrators to review incidents remotely instead of physically retrieving video footage from buses. These tools allow administrators to respond to issues and communicate with families more quickly.

“Transportant is the only one that pulls it all together,” he said.

Staples said many districts previously relied on disconnected systems for routing, cameras and GPS tracking.

Despite ongoing budget pressures facing K-12 districts, Staples said the company continues to see strong demand and expects additional growth over the next year.

“We have a backlog that would probably double our sales when the schools have the funding,” he said.

As districts continue struggling with driver shortages, rising operational pressures and growing expectations from families, Staples believes transportation technology will become a larger part of how schools manage safety, communication and staffing challenges in the years ahead.

Transportant is headquartered in Kansas, but the company’s growing network of Wisconsin investors, operators and school district customers reflects the increasing role Wisconsin’s startup ecosystem is playing in supporting scalable technology companies beyond the state’s borders.