Distracted driving is a leading cause of car accidents and increased car insurance premiums, which are expected to increase in 2025.
For commercial fleets, navigating that is an expensive challenge. But for California-based startup Netradyne, it’s a tailwind.
Netradyne offers fleet owners, including big names like Amazonwith AI-enabled dash cameras that collect vehicle data and video to improve driver safety, reducing crashes by approximately 50%, according to the company. The devices, which can come equipped with inward- and outward-facing cameras, also use edge computing to send drivers real-time notifications if they are distracted or driving dangerously, while also rewarding drivers for good behavior.
britcommerce last reported on Netradyne’s $150 million Series C in 2021, and the company has since expanded beyond North America and India to Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. To further that growth in Ireland and Japan in the coming months, Netradyne just raised a $90 million Series D at a pre-money valuation of $1.25 billion, led by Point72 Private Investments with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.
And with great expansion comes great data. Over the years, Netradyne has accumulated more than 18 billion miles of data, which the company says has helped improve the product to a point of 99% accuracy in alerts and 25 million safety scores. better compliance.
The fresh capital will also go towards improving the product and improving investments in the market.
Fleets can access Netradyne’s Safety Manager Assistant, an AI-powered co-pilot that provides a natural language interface to the company portal and uses generative AI to maintain conversations about data and ideas.
Avneesh Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Netradyne, told britcommerce that the company would invest more in generative AI, adding additional use cases to its co-pilot and a “more agentic approach.”
Agrawal also noted that Netradyne would use its vast data to develop fundamental driving models with a focus on edge-case driving scenarios to improve autonomous driving technology.
“We have abundant vision data that analyzes all aspects of the road and driving behavior and reads different traffic signs. No one in the autonomous industry has this kind of data,” Agrawal said. “Our goal now is to train a driving model using generative AI to identify these edge cases.”
He added that Netradyne’s intention is not to develop its own AV technology, but rather to partner with others and offer the startup’s data and insights.
Netradyne customers span fleets operating in online retail, food and beverage, oil and gas, utilities, construction and more. The startup offers two main products. The first is a four-view dash cam that collects images from road-facing, driver-facing and two side window cameras, all in one easy-to-install device. This captures driver behavior, reduces blind spots and provides evidence in the event of an accident. The second is a dual-vision camera, which looks at both the road and the driver.
Fleet owners who need more visibility can use the Hub-X add-on, which is a dash cam extension that supports up to four additional cameras to place anywhere they are needed, such as in front of the back of a bus.
The startup also offers a driver monitoring solution, which can be added to the quad camera to detect drowsy driving behaviors using a dedicated sensor with night detection and the ability to see through most sunglasses, according to the company.
In response to concerns about driver privacy, Agrawal says Netradyne is GDPR compliant and never provides drivers’ personally identifiable information externally.
“Investing in Netradyne is about believing in safer roads and supporting professional drivers,” said Sri Chandrasekar, Managing Partner at Point72 Private Investments. “Since our initial investment in 2018, we have witnessed Netradyne’s impressive growth and believe its technology is well positioned to not only empower fleet managers but also foster a culture of safe driving.”
Agrawal said Netradyne has seen 65% growth in the past 12 months and expects to be net profitable next year.