Masabi, a UK-based developer of mobile ticketing technology for the rail industry, has raised $2 million from mobile venture fund M8 Capital.
The investment round will be used to further develop its mobile ticket office system and expand outside of the UK where it already has partnerships with ticket vendors TheTrainLine and ATOS Origin.
The technology works by allowing secure, ticket purchases and display on the majority of common mobile phone handsets, as well as smartphones.
Masabi distributed tickets are based on existing square barcodes, a process adopted by the UK's Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) as a standard model in December 2008.
A number of UK rail operators have already started introducing barcode scanners on trains and at stations, with several major routes expected to be fully covered by the end of 2010.
Here's a demo of the system: