Mobile-Tech Startup, Zendrive, Raises $13.5 Mn in Series A Led By Sherpa Capital

Mobile-tech startup, Zendrive, has raised $13.5 Mn in Series A round led by Sherpa Capital. This round saw participation from Nyca Partners, Thomvest Ventures (Peter J. Thomson) and existing investors, First Round Capital, BMW i Ventures, Fontinalis Partners (Bill Ford) and Tad Montross.

The startup will use the newly raised fund to focus on safety innovation and to grow its team.

Pankaj Risbood, co-founder of Zendrive said, “The transportation and logistics sectors in India are undergoing rapid growth and modernisation. At the same time, road safety is becoming an increasing focus for regulators and communities. Zendrive technology, by virtue of working on any smartphone, fits in very well with the requirements for a solution that is cheap, does not require hardware and can be rapidly deployed nationwide.”

Zendrive was founded in 2013 by Jonathan Matus and Pankaj Risbood. It is based in San Francisco and has its engineering unit in Bangalore. Zendrive uses artificial intelligence algorithms to analyse sensor data and return actionable insights for fleets and drivers. As the technology is software-based, managing and scaling within any number of vehicles is simple and affordable.

Through its product suite, Zendrive taps mobile sensors to measure driver safety through actions like acceleration, braking, swerving and phone use. Its Bangalore unit is building state of the art machine learning models to monitor driving behaviours and employing game mechanics to coach drivers to become safer.

Zendrive’s technology can be used by a broad list of industries and products including on-demand services, commercial fleets, taxi aggregators, insurance, city planning, mapping, driving instruction, roadside assistance and more.

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