The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Mar 2015

GreenRoad provides fleet businesses with a SaaS-based driver-behavior and fleet-performance solution that helps change driver behavior and manage fleet performance. The platform offers business intelligence and performance analytics that enable fleets to optimize daily and strategic operations. It helps fleet operators improve driving safety, increase fuel economy, lower insurance premiums, and reduce accident-related costs. Led by CEO Zeev Braude, the company plans to use new capital to expand sales and marketing resources and activity in the US and EMEA and to enhance its driver-behavior technology. GreenRoad has offices in the US, UK and Israel. In March 2015 the company raised $26m in growth capital to support these efforts. GreenRoad provides a real-time driver performance management solution that includes an in-vehicle system measuring over 120 maneuvers, driver-facing feedback, fleet reporting, individual driver accounts, and a web-based training and coaching portal. The product is positioned to improve safety and efficiency, and the company reports measurable outcomes including an average 50% reduction in crashes and up to 10% reduction in fuel consumption. More than 60,000 fleet drivers use GreenRoad’s service; the company has logged over 3 billion driver miles and is adding over 100 million driver miles per month. GreenRoad is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, and maintains offices in the U.S., U.K., and Israel. Its customer roster includes First Group, Ryder, Iron Mountain, Securitas Mobile, Mastec, Arctic Glacier, DuPre Logistics, and Quickway Carriers. Recent executive hires — including Jim Heeger as president and CEO and Tanya Roberts as senior vice president of marketing — are aimed at accelerating market penetration and growth. GreenRoad offers a small dashboard device that uses GPS, an accelerometer, a CPU, Google Maps and backend algorithms to monitor driver behavior and display a simple green/yellow/red light to drivers. The system analyzes more than 120 driving maneuvers and feeds a dashboard-style management portal that provides context and peer benchmarking for supervisors. The product emphasizes low intrusiveness and behavioral design—avoiding video/audio surveillance and using simple daily feedback—to encourage safer driving. GreenRoad began as a consumer concept by an Israeli entrepreneur and pivoted to commercial fleets after about three years of R&D to refine its algorithms and reduce false positives. The company sells three-year licenses at $1,000 per car; it reports 80 customers and at least one customer has deployed the technology in 20,000 vehicles, implying large multi-million-dollar contracts. GreenRoad positions itself in an addressable market of roughly 80 million professionally driven vehicles in the US and EU and claims fuel and crash savings (roughly $300 and $1,000–$4,000 per vehicle per year) that create strong ROI for fleet buyers. Financially, the company had raised less than $40 million to date and is announcing an additional $10 million from Generation Investment. GreenRoad produces an in-vehicle device and accompanying software that monitors 120 driving factors to reinforce safe driving habits. The device displays analysis via green, yellow and red lights and beams driving data to a central web database for fleet managers to review. The system is predominantly used by commercial vehicle fleets; GreenRoad works with 60 commercial fleets spanning thousands of vehicles. The company says the system can reduce fuel costs by 10% and car accidents by up to half, according to VentureWire. GreenRoad raised $15 million in a fourth round to build its customer base and pursue partnerships with technology and insurance companies. The company is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., and has raised $40 million to date. GreenRoad sells the SafetyCenter, an in-car hardware device that communicates driving safety via three lights (green to red) and uploads driving information for later online review. The product uses accelerometers to sense vehicle motion, positioning itself as a less intrusive, lower-cost alternative to video-based competitors DriveCam and SmartDrive. Priced at $30 per month, GreenRoad is marketed at roughly half the cost of its video-monitoring rivals. Initial testing reported crash reductions of about 50% and fuel savings of about 7%. As Drive Diagnostics, the system has been installed in roughly 1,000 vehicles across 12 clients, including T-Mobile’s service fleet, while competitors are installed in about 100,000 vehicles. The company recently re-launched, moved its headquarters from Israel to Redwood Shores, Calif., and installed a new management team while retaining the two founders in senior technical and business development roles.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2014

Quench is a clean-technology company that rents and services “bottle-less” water filtration systems (point-of-use water coolers) and ice dispensers for businesses and institutions. Led by CEO Tony Ibarguen and based outside Philadelphia, the company purifies tap water through its installed systems. Quench is described as a large independent provider of filtered drinking water and ice dispensers in North America. It has an installed base of over 27,000 customers across 49 states, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. The company secured $38.5m in equity and debt financing and intends to use the funds to invest in organic sales and pursue strategic acquisitions over the coming year. Its customer footprint and capital raise position it to expand sales and acquisition activity in the near term. Quench USA rents, installs and services “bottleless” water filtration systems for businesses, purifying tap water as an environmentally responsible alternative to 5-gallon plastic jugs. The company is described as a clean technology business led by Chairman Douglas Brown and CEO Anthony Ibarguen. It has an installed base of more than 50,000 water filtration systems across 47 US states, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Quench recently closed an approximately $30m financing composed of equity and debt. The company intends to use the funding to continue to grow organically and through acquisitions. Operations are focused on the North American market, servicing businesses with filtration equipment and related services. Quench USA owns, markets and distributes point-of-use bottle-less drinking water purification and dispensing systems. The company focuses on providing bottle-less purification and dispensing hardware to customers. It recently completed a $13M equity financing. The round was led by Virgin Green Fund with participation from existing investors Element Partners and Douglas Brown. Quench says the funds will enable it to expand its product offering into new regions across the USA. A Virgin Green Fund partner said the firm is positioned to capitalize on growth in the point-of-use sector and will support execution of Quench’s business plan.

Participated · Convertible Note · Jan 2009

Solyndra produces cylindrical thin-film solar PV modules that are mounted horizontally for faster, lower-cost rooftop installations and capture direct and reflected sunlight across a 360-degree surface. Its 200 Series product has seen strong acceptance, and the company reported annual revenues exceeding $140 million last year. Solyndra has shipped nearly 100 megawatts of panels and completed more than 1,000 installations in 20 countries. The company completed a 300,000 square foot manufacturing and customer demonstration facility and plans to install remaining production tools in 2011 to bring its annual production run rate to approximately 200 MW by year-end, rising to 300 MW when fully ramped. The new facility is expected to enable an installed system cost-of-goods-sold of approximately $2 per watt in the first quarter of 2013. Solyndra employs about 1,050 people and says it aims to be cash-flow positive by the end of the year while pursuing cost reductions and expanded sales and marketing. Solyndra manufactures cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The company secured a $535M loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy, funded under the Recovery Act, to finance the first phase of its second manufacturing facility near its Fremont plant. The new plant is designed to produce 500 megawatts per year and will enable Solyndra to fulfill a contractual backlog of over $2 billion. Solyndra estimates the project will create 3,000 initial construction jobs and as many as 1,000 jobs once the facility opens, plus hundreds of installer jobs nationwide. Across both facilities, production over their lifetime is projected to cut more than 350 million metric tons of CO2 emissions or the equivalent of 850 million barrels of oil. CEO Dr. Chris Gronet said the funding supports economic recovery and the planet’s need for clean-tech solutions and thanked President Barack Obama, the DOE, Congress and the company’s investors. Solyndra manufactures copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panels for installation. The company reported $1.2 billion in contracts for its panels through 2012. In the new year it raised $219.2 million in a fifth-round financing from a syndicate of 23 investors. The financing breakdown was $96.6 million allocated as working capital and $122.2 million in convertible promissory notes. Solyndra has not disclosed specific plans for the proceeds or whether the raise is part of the $600 million in capital it said it had lined up in October. GreenTechMedia reported this infusion could form the bulk of a larger $350 million goal for the round.