Drivewyze, the company known primarily for its weigh station bypass systems, has received a $60 million investment to help its ongoing push into new areas.
Drivewyze is a subsidiary of Intelligent Imaging Systems. The two companies announced Tuesday that they had received a $60 million investment into Drivewyze from Sageview Capital, a technology-focused later stage investment company. A spokesman for Drivewyze would not disclose the valuation put on the freight techn company but did say the Sageview Capital investment was for a minority stake.
“This new investment will help IIS/Drivewyze continue to scale its connected truck platform in the commercial vehicle services market and achieve continued strong growth in SaaS revenue,” IIS/Drivewyze said in its announcement of the investment. Sageview Capital will place two of its executives on the IIS board of directors: Scott Stuart, who is a co-founder and managing partner, and Andrew Korn, who is a partner.
The spokesman said it was the biggest investment in Drivewyze history.
PreClear, which allows a truck to bypass a weigh station by providing data to regulatory authorities through the truck itself, has long been the base business for Drivewyze. But in recent years, the company has added services to broadcast safety notifications or parking availability alerts into the cab.
“Drivewyze set out from the beginning to build a platform, not just a bypass service,” the spokesman said in an email to FreightWaves. “This investment will accelerate growth of connected truck services through the platform.”
In announcing the deal, IIS quoted its president and CEO, Brian Heath, as saying the company’s strategy is to “leverage the connected truck platform we’ve built and use it to revolutionize transportation safety and efficiency.”
Drivewyze, according to the spokesman, has the “most widely distributed connected trucking platform in trucking history,” claiming more than 2 million trucks through telematics providers it partners with.
The PreClear service operates in all but three states: Iowa, Wyoming and Georgia. (The competitive battle with its chief competitor in the weigh bypass space, PrePass, has been pitched at times.)
“We are rapidly evolving our position in the market as a platform to deliver additional value-added services to our trucking customers,” the spokesman said of the company’s strategy. “Drivewyze safety notifications is the first example of that.”
Sageview: Drivewyze is ready to accelerate
In a phone interview with FreightWaves, Sageview’s Korn said the company’s investment philosophy is to direct its capital toward “growth-oriented businesses” in the software industry. Sageview focuses on “established” businesses rather than startups, companies that “are looking to take some capital to become a preeminent business.” Korn said.
“They know what they’re doing and they need capital to really accelerate their business,” he said of Drivewyze.
Sageview tends to only have 12 to 15 investments at any one time, Korn said, and Drivewyze is its first private company investment in the supply chain or trucking sector. But he added that the company has been looking at the supply chain for quite some time.
“If you look at Drivewyze, they fit all the criteria we are looking for,” Korn said. He described the company’s products as “great” and “loved by its customers.” “It has a real ability and opportunity to grow,” he said.
Korn declined to comment on what opportunities he thought Drivewyze might pursue next after adding its safety and parking notifications in its service.
“We trust them to have a lot of interesting things and we will help and provide input,” Korn said. On determining what new services Drivewyze might be able to pursue now that it has the additional capital, Korn added, “we will rely on them to do that.”
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