Public transport journey planning app TRAFI has raised $6.5m in a Series A funding round led by Octopus Investments, the parties have announced.

The app is designed to use real-time data, collected from users and transport authorities, so help travellers plan the fastest and most efficient routes and calculate exact journey times.

The business was launched in 2013 in Lithuania by Jurgis Pasukonis, Mantas Vizbaras, Martynas Gudonavicius and Algimantas Krasauskas. Last year the product was listed in Apple’s Best Apps of 2014.

The $6.5m announced today will enable TRAFI to launch in additional markets and scale the team; including the planned hire of a VP of Growth and further develop the technology behind the app. TRAFI are also opening up a London-based office.

Octopus Investments led the funding round, which also saw involvement from the EBRD, BaltCap and various seed investors.

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VC investor Octopus has previously backed several successful, high-growth businesses including Zoopla Property Group, Secret Escapes, SwiftKey, graze.com and YPlan.

Simon King from the ventures team at Octopus said the firm is interested “backing great teams from across Europe”.

“In TRAFI we’re very excited about partnering with one of the top teams to come out of Lithuania,” he added.

TRAFI founder and CEO Martynas Gudonavičius welcomed the backing of “illustrious investors” such as Octopus.

“Existing solutions tend to focus on scaling to multiple cities quickly, without fixing the core problem: that publicly available public transportation information is often inaccurate, which in time results in poor user engagement,” he said.

“We see enormous potential in emerging market cities where complex transport networks and the imperfect public information available currently makes it difficult for commuters to plan their journeys.

“In environments like these, TRAFI’s highly accurate platform sets us apart from existing public and private solutions.”

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