Drivewyze Receives $60M Investment to Accelerate Growth
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Trucking technology provider Drivewyze will receive $60 million in financing to help advance its growth through an agreement parent company Intelligent Imaging Systems has reached with an investment firm, according to a July 14 announcement.
Drivewyze is the developer of a connected truck platform that connects vehicles and infrastructure for drivers, fleets, telematics partners and government agencies. The platform utilizes sensors and technology built into the roadways to provide drivers with the ability to bypass weigh stations and receive safety notifications.
The company said the investment will help it scale its connected truck platform in the commercial vehicle services market throughout North America.
We're pleased to announce the close of a $60 million minority financing by Sageview Capital. We are very excited to have Sageview Capital partner with us to accelerate our company's growth plans. Find out more here: https://t.co/fyEbPLB0Uv pic.twitter.com/9je34Kl1Rs — Drivewyze (@Drivewyze) July 14, 2020
“We are on a mission,” Drivewyze CEO Brian Heath told Transport Topics. “We want to reinvent truck safety and efficiency. We’ve been in a building phase for years. The connected truck platform now operates in 45 states and 800 service sites just for the bypass service and another couple thousand service sites for safety notifications.”
Sageview Capital is a private investment firm focused on providing growth capital to tech-enabled businesses. It provided the minority financing with the goal of helping accelerate IIS and Drivewyze’s growth plans.
“IIS and Drivewyze provide fleets, transportation companies and government agencies unique technology solutions to cut costs, gain efficiencies and improve safety,” Sageview Capital co-founder Scott Stuart said in a statement. “We believe that IIS/Drivewyze is an exciting addition to the Sageview portfolio, and we are excited to provide the company with financial and operational support as it continues to achieve impressive growth and extends its position as a clear market leader.” Stuart and Sageview partner Andrew Korn will be joining the IIS Board of Directors.
Heath
Heath believes the company’s technology provides an opportunity for efficiency gains through interconnectivity with other systems.
“Lots of people use the terminology of a connected truck, but when we say ‘connected truck platform’ our perspective is that all of our services are tied into infrastructure,” he said. “The infrastructure systems, the programs, the sensors that you encounter on the transportation network. That’s really what’s unique about this. It allows us to complement all of our telematics partners.”
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Heath said the software is now deployed in 2 million vehicles, and believes further expansion of connected technology will help ease congestion and the associated costs associated with traffic delays.
“We think that we have the platform to really start addressing those [problems],” Heath said. “Not just from an efficiency perspective but also from a safety perspective. There is lots of room to grow, lots of pain points that we think we can help the industry with that traditionally just haven’t been resolved.”
The investment will help the company achieve the scale it needs to reach those goals, Heath added. “It’s going to be expanding the services we offer through the platform, scaling the organization to be able to support the growth that we’ve been seeing,” Heath said. “It’s very much in line with our existing strategy.”
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