Company will accelerate growth of Safety Cloud® platform connecting consumer vehicles to digital alerts from emergency vehicles, towing and recovery fleets, and roadway infrastructure equipment
BOSTON, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Volition Capital, a leading technology and consumer growth equity firm, today announced it closed a growth investment in HAAS Alert, a company with the largest commercially-deployed connected vehicle network powered by its Safety Cloud® digital alerting platform. This investment follows rapid growth for HAAS Alert, with thousands of public safety and transportation agencies, roadway fleets, and municipalities using Safety Cloud to deliver road safety information and hazard warnings to drivers via in-app and in-vehicle alerts.
According to an analysis by Deloitte, there will be an estimated 470 million connected vehicles on highways worldwide by 2025, creating a significant opportunity for automobile OEMs to leverage network connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) not only for driver convenience and in-vehicle entertainment but to increase road safety. With emerging government regulations and technological advancements, features such as forward collision warning systems have become integral to automobile safety systems.
Despite the growth in connected cars and vehicle-specific safety features, the transportation system remains significantly disjointed. Millions of vehicles, from fire trucks and ambulances to tow trucks, snowplows, and school buses, rely on analog equipment like flashing lights, sirens, cones, and roadside signs to capture driver attention and communicate information about road hazards. With the rise in distracted driving, these tools become increasingly ineffective on their own, resulting in hundreds of thousands of preventable collisions and thousands of fatalities annually.
HAAS Alert's digital alerting solution and connected vehicle platform improve road safety by bridging information gaps and data silos across the transportation industry. It creates a shared network for communicating critical safety information. Public safety fleets and towing vehicles connected to Safety Cloud can deliver digital alerts to drivers through in-vehicle screens and navigation applications as they approach active road hazards up to 30 seconds in advance, reducing the likelihood of collisions by up to 90%. Additionally, fleets using Safety Cloud can track their vehicle assets and easily share information with other nearby responding agencies for coordinated response and awareness on the road.
"Our vision is a connected, collision-free world where everyone gets home safely," said Cory Hohs, CEO of HAAS Alert. "Tragically, more than 40,000 lives are lost on American roads every year in collisions that are largely preventable. We believe that connectivity can play a critical role in addressing this crisis and permanently make transportation safer for everyone. This investment will enable us to bring Safety Cloud protection to more vehicles, platforms, and communities of every size, and develop new digital alerting and connected safety solutions that ultimately save more lives."
Safety Cloud® alerts already reach millions of drivers nationwide, including more than 2 million Stellantis vehicles (2018 and newer Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler vehicles), as well as millions of drivers through navigation apps. The investment from Volition Capital will support HAAS Alert's goal to expand Safety Cloud's presence in consumer automotive vehicles and its user base, which includes more than 3,200 public safety and transportation agencies, roadway fleets, and municipalities. The capital will support the development of new platform integrations, partnerships, and innovative lifesaving use cases for its digital alerting technology.
"The market category for connected vehicle technology is ripe for innovation and has significant growth potential," said Roger Hurwitz, Volition Capital Managing Partner. "Some of the most successful software solutions are ones that both address an industry need and work seamlessly with an existing technology stack. HAAS Alert's growth has been fueled by widespread adoption of its solution by public safety agencies nationwide and Safety Cloud's seamless integration with a variety of platforms that first responders, infrastructure operators, and transportation planners already use for protection on the road."
HAAS Alert was founded in 2015. After co-founder Cory Hohs was nearly struck by a responding ambulance, he decided to leverage his background in mapping and navigation to explore how technology could enable real-time communication between things on the road. Along with Jigar Patel, an engineer with a background in cloud computing and distributed systems, and Noah Levens, a creative product and brand designer, the three co-founded HAAS Alert and began work on what would become Safety Cloud.
About Volition Capital
Volition Capital is a Boston-based growth equity firm that principally invests in high-growth, founder-owned companies across the software, Internet, and consumer sectors. Founded in 2010, Volition has over $1.7 billion in assets under management and has invested in and/or provided sub-advisory advice to more than 40 companies in the United States and Canada. The firm selectively partners with founders to help them achieve their fullest aspirations for their businesses. For more information, visit http://www.volitioncapital.com or follow us on Twitter @volitioncapital.
About HAAS Alert
HAAS Alert's mission is to build lifesaving mobility solutions to make vehicles and roads safer and smarter. Our vision is a connected, collision-free world where everyone gets home safely. HAAS Alert makes roads and communities safer by delivering digital alerts from emergency response, municipal and private fleets, work zones, and connected infrastructure to nearby drivers through its vehicle communication platform. For more information, visit http://www.haasalert.com.
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SOURCE Volition Capital
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