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Distracted driving is a leading cause of car accidents – and rising car insurance premiums It is expected to increase in 2025.
For merchant fleets, this is an expensive problem to navigate. But for California-based startup Netradyne, that’s a tailwind.
Netradyne caters to fleet owners including Big names like Amazonaccording to the company, it reduces accidents by about 50% with AI-powered surveillance cameras that collect vehicle data and video to improve driver safety. The devices, which can be equipped with inward and outward-facing cameras, also use off-the-shelf computing to send drivers real-time notifications when they are distracted or driving dangerously, while also rewarding drivers for good behavior.
TechCrunch reported the latest Netradyne’s $150 million Series C in 2021 and since then the company has expanded beyond North America and India to Germany, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. To continue this growth in Ireland and Japan in the coming months, Netradyne has raised a $90 million Series D round led by Point72 Private Investments at $1.25 billion with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.
And with big expansion comes big data. Over the years, Netradyne has collected 18 billion miles worth of data, which the company says has helped improve the product to 99% alert accuracy and 25 million better match points.
The fresh capital will also be used to improve product and increase investment in the market.
Fleets can access Netradyne’s branded Safety Manager Assistant, an AI-powered copilot that offers a natural language interface to the company’s portal and uses generative artificial intelligence to drive conversations about information and insights.
Avneesh Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Netradyne, told TechCrunch that the company will invest more in generative AI, adding additional use cases and a more “agentive approach” to the second pilot.
Agrawal also noted that Netradyne will use its extensive data to develop basic driving models with a focus on cornering scenarios to improve autonomous driving technology.
“We have rich vision data that analyzes every aspect of the road and driving behavior and reads various road signs. No one in the autonomous industry has this kind of data,” Agrawal said. “Now our goal is to train a driving model using generative artificial intelligence to identify these outliers.”
He added that it is not Netradyne’s intention to develop its own AV technology, but rather to partner with others and offer the startup’s data and insights.
Netradyne’s customers include online retail, food and beverage, oil and gas, utilities, construction and more. covers the fleets operating in the fields. The startup offers two main products. The first is a four-view surveillance camera that looks at the road, looks at the driver and collects footage from two side window cameras in one easy-to-install device. It captures driver behavior, reduces blind spots and provides evidence in the event of an accident. The second is a dual-view camera that looks at both the road and the driver.
Fleet owners who need more visibility can use the Hub-X attachment, a camera extension that supports up to four additional cameras that can be placed wherever they need them, such as facing the back of the bus.
The startup also offers a driver monitoring solution that can be attached to a quad camera to detect drowsy driving behaviors using night detection and a special sensor that can see through most sunglasses, according to the company.
In response to concerns about driver privacy, Agrawal says Netradyne is GDPR compliant and never outsources drivers’ personally identifiable information.
“Investing in Netradyne is about believing in safer roads and supporting professional drivers,” said Sri Chandrasekar, Managing Partner, Point72 Private Investments. “Since our initial investment in 2018, we have seen Netradyne’s impressive growth and believe their technology is well-positioned to not only empower fleet managers, but also to foster a culture of safe driving.”
Netradyne has seen 65% growth over the past 12 months and expects to turn a net profit next year, Agrawal said.