Fast Company Names Zum as Honoree in 2025 World Changing Ideas Awards for Modernizing Student Transportation

Company Recognized for AI-Driven Technology and Safe, Sustainable Service Nationwide

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zūm, the leader in modern student transportation, today was recognized by Fast Company's 2025 World Changing Ideas Awards.

The annual recognition honors businesses and organizations that are developing creative solutions to the most pressing issues of our time and driving meaningful change in the world. This is the second year Zum has been named to this prestigious list. Zum was selected as an honoree in the Established Excellence: 5–14 Years in Business category.

"At Zum, we recognize that student transportation has the potential to positively impact families, schools and entire communities through safe, efficient and equitable service and vehicle-to-grid technology to power the grid with electric school bus batteries," said Ritu Narayan, CEO and Founder of Zum. "We appreciate being included on Fast Company's World Changing Ideas list among so many organizations that are working to build a better world."

This year's awards showcase 50 winners across 12 categories and 50 additional winners across industries. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters judged applications based on their impact, sustainability, design, creativity, scalability and ability to improve society.

"The World Changing Ideas Awards have always been about showcasing the art of the possible," said Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. "We're proud to recognize the organizations and leaders that are making meaningful progress on the biggest issues of our time."

Zum unifies parents, students, school administrators and drivers on a single personalized end-to-end technology platform, enabling never-before achieved levels of visibility and data-backed accountability. Through the Zum app, parents can view a profile of their child's bus driver, along with real-time tracking and notifications about their school bus location and their child's pickup or dropoff status. Zum also allows administrators to optimize routes and provides staff with real-time data and performance reports.

In 2024, Zum launched the nation's first fully electrified school bus fleet in Oakland, California. The 74-bus Oakland fleet is also equipped with groundbreaking vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, enabling the buses to return energy to the grid at scale. The all-EV buses, which send 2.1 gigawatt hours of energy back to the grid annually, improve grid resilience during times of peak demand.

Zum currently serves thousands of schools across 14 states, including districts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland; Boston; Seattle; Spokane; Nashville; Omaha; Kansas City, Mo.; Howard County, Md.; and more.

The complete list of 2025 World Changing Ideas honorees can be found at https://www.fastcompany.com/world-changing-ideas/list. It will also be available in the 2025 Summer print issue of Fast Company.

To learn more about how Zum is working with thousands of schools across the nation to modernize student transportation, please visit Zum's website.

About Zūm
Zum is a modern transportation solution transforming school transportation, the largest mass transit system in the U.S. Today, the company provides turnkey modern transportation solutions to school districts in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Utah, and Virginia, and is expanding rapidly nationwide. Recognized globally for its innovative transportation and energy as a service platform, Zum has been featured among Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, CNBC Disruptor 50, CNBC Changemakers, World Economic Forum and Financial Times' Fastest Growing Companies. Learn more about Zum at www.ridezum.com.

About Fast Company
Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.

CONTACT:
Jenny Mayfield, Vice President of Communications – [email protected]

SOURCE Zūm