According to a study by Ernst & Young, the number of vehicles that drove on Russia roads as of January 2018 was close to 53 mio. Less than 40% of them have telematics equipment capable of transmitting vehicle data and controlling it remotely. Smart Driving Labs is a startup developing telematics solutions and anti-theft systems. Nikita Kasyanenko, head of advertising and co-founder of the project, spoke about the company’s development and products with Invest Foresight.
Startup history
Smart Driving Labs was founded in the spring of 2015 by Mikhail Anokhin and Nikita Kasyanenko. Their interest in creating the ConnectedCar system was caused by the high potential of the technology and the state of the Russian market: low competition and a large number of car owners who do not have any such products.
Prior to that, Anokhin had worked 10 years in the field of auto insurance. An expert in telematics, he helped develop Russia’s first “smart insurance” product. Kasyanenko worked in marketing. At the concept phase, the partners began to look for an investor. It was Yekaterina Ignatova, the wife of Rostec state corporation head Sergey Chemezov, who believed in the project and provided investment. Initially, the plan was to hire foreign programmers who would work remotely. But software development by third-party experts severely limits the possibilities for its ongoing upgrade and fast improvement due to lack of communication. In addition, IT outsourcing costs more than using full-time developers. After receiving funding to work on the startup, the company hired 20 specialists in software, hardware and insurance, and established a development center in Moscow.
Over the next two years, the project team developed the Element platform, which comprises an OBDII adapter that reads the car information, anti-theft tools and a mobile app. The solution allows the owner to remotely control the car and view its logs and technical condition data through software, and protects it against theft. In 2017, sales were launched. The buyers include private individuals and insurance companies, automakers and car parks.
Product features
The Element solution allows for exchanging queries and data between various devices and transport vehicles using networks and services. According to Kasyanenko, a car connected to Element can be considered part of the internet of things, with a complicated module that is able to transmit and receive data by itself. Using a special algorithm, a scoring model evaluates the person’s driving style and provides recommendations on how to improve it. Following the advice would make the driving safer which, in turn, will reduce the cost of the insurance policy.
The system also has an anti-theft security module, which consists of an alarm sticker and a small blocking device. Only recently, the Element solution prevented a theft of a rented car. Using this system, drivers try to drive more carefully. For instance, 50% of them changed their driving style after having used the Element for a month.
The startup developers created their own full-fledged navigator service. It is embedded in the mobile app and is available on the website in the Dashboard section. The decision was made to minimize the costs, for the leaders on this market – Google and Yandex – do not provide their services for free and also provide limited data to organizations. The Element’s own solution allows users to customize the maps.
Achievements and plans
Smart Driving Labs is headquartered in Moscow, with representative offices in St. Petersburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan. Today, the company employs 70 people. Over 10K cars have already been connected to the platform, against nearly 2K in December 2017. The company executives do not reveal the project turnover, but Kasyanenko said the company will become self-sufficient by the end of 2018. The minimum cost of the connection to the Element platform is RUR 15K ($221), with the subscription annual fee starting from RUR 4K. To purchase the all-inclusive tariff, a client will pay RUR 100K with subsequent annual subscription fee of RUR 27K. The prices vary depending on the scope of functions. The product is sold via dealership centers together with a fully loaded car; it can also be purchased separately. Certain insurance companies provide the Element kit free together with comprehensive insurance.
Smart Driving Labs cooperates with leasing companies. A program has been developed together with the Carcade company that allows connecting a vehicle to the telematics platform with anti-theft functions. The leasing company monitors the vehicle movements, which decreases the risk of improper use. The company’s near-term plans include entering foreign markets.
By Christina Firsova