News & Events

From Albany Business Review / By Sam Raudins / Jan. 26, 2024

Schenectady-based technology company Transfinder has opened its second international office, this time in Mumbai, India.

The office opened last year with seven software engineers, CEO Antonio Civitella said. Transfinder opened a Shanghai, China, office about nine years ago.

The company's software helps school districts determine the best bus routes while tracking fuel consumption, maintenance costs and vehicle replacement.

Civitella said the international expansion is driven by the need to hire.

"The common theme that those two countries have — and I have to say, I think other technology companies know it and they're tapping into it — there's a lot of technical people," Civitella said. "They have studied technology. A lot of development is happening from other big technology companies that ventured out to those two countries in past several years. So we saw that coming and we hopped on to that wave."

Transfinder has been competing with other tech companies in the United States for a limited number of employees, Civitella said.

"There's a lot of technology gaps here in the United States, a lot of competition. Not so many people are going to the technology field, especially software engineers. So there's still a gap here," Civitella said. "We're looking at other companies that we technically compete with not in the industry — we're competing in employment. There's so many technology companies."

Transfinder now has 182 employees globally, with 118 in the United States, most of which are in the Capital Region.

The India office is one of the company's innovation centers, where engineers further develop Transfinder products. Continuing to improve software and expand Transfinder's range of service is the company's strategy to keep current clients and add new ones as more customers are looking for one-stop-shop providers.

One of those products is Servicefinder, Transfinder's fleet and asset maintenance program. Last year, the company launched the latest version of the software, which manages tasks likes preventive maintenance and work orders for vehicles and other assets, like lawn mowers or HVAC systems.

The software currently manages over 55,800 vehicles across all of Transfinder's clients.

Civitella said Servicefinder could expand Transfinder's customer base because it has other use cases outside of school buses.

"We're looking at other services, whether it's the heating and cooling companies or any type of transport that has a requirement that the vehicle has to be up to code," he said.

Transfinder ended 2023 with $35.4 million in revenue, up 23% over 2022. Servicefinder was one of the driver's of that growth.

In 2024, the plan is to increase employee headcount to over 200 across the company.

"We still continue supporting the Capital Region ... but we also know that there's qualified individuals outside the Capital Region. We're in a position to bring them on board and many of our employees are still remote. And that's been working very well for us," Civitella said.