Ritu Narayan founded Zum after struggling to find reliable school transportation for her children. Today, her $1.7 billion company is bringing 21st century technology to a stodgy workhorse.

By Maggie McGrath, Forbes Staff

Thirteen years ago, Ritu Narayan was a digital whiz overseeing a billion-dollar line of business at eBay when she was faced with a very analog problem: how to get her kids, 3 and 8 at the time, to daycare and school without missing meetings. The private school didn’t have a bus, Bay Area traffic is notoriously terrible and the part-timers she hired to help were both expensive and inconsistent.

Her dilemma was filled with echoes from her childhood in the foothills of the Himalayas. “My mom, as an educator in India, had left her job for the same reason,” Narayan says. “And I’m here sitting in Silicon Valley at the center of innovation, and I’m also thinking: Would I have to leave my job, my career?”

Narayan did leave eBay, but not to become her kids’ chauffeur. Along with her two brothers, Vivek and Abhishek Garg, she cofounded Zum, a Redwood City, California–based student transportation outfit that is trying to use technology to improve every aspect of the student bus experience. Zum leases bus yards, buys buses and small student shuttle vans and connects them (via a tablet and GPS) to an app that allows parents and teachers alike to track the vehicles on their routes. Think Uber for school buses. Launched in 2015, Zum has grown into a transportation unicorn: With $430 million in funding raised, it is valued at $1.7 billion. Revenue in 2025 hit $333 million, up 35% from 2024, with 5,000 schools nationwide paying for the service. This momentum vaulted CEO Narayan, 53, onto the 2026 Forbes 50 Over 50 list—our annual roundup, produced in partnership with Mika Brzezin­ski and her Know Your Value initiative, of women who notch their greatest professional accomplishments after age 50. (For the complete list of 200 women, please see forbes.com/50over50.)

Right now, schools in 18 states use Zum’s technology, though Narayan says it’s just “a matter of time” before........

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