UK-based Wejo specialises in smart mobility cloud and software solutions for connected, electric and autonomous vehicle data. The Manchester-based company recently announced that it raised $15.9 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment.
The investment came from Sompo Light Vortex, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sompo Holdings and one of its major commercial partners, current investors and certain members of Wejo’s Board of Directors.
According to Richard Barlow, founder and CEO of Wejo – a British connected vehicle data start-up -, Sompo’s new investment will help the company continue to advance its Smart Mobility platform.
PIPE investment
Under the PIPE, the company agreed to issue and sell in a private placement an aggregate of nearly 11.3 million of Wejo’s units, each consisting of one of the company’s common shares and one-third of one warrant per unit that was purchased.
The additional liquidity was raised via this initiative along with Wejo’s significant cost reductions despite the focus on expanding its products in marketplace solutions and automotive SaaS. This will further draw down on the Company’s existing debt and equity facilities previously announced and are intended to extend Wejo’s capital runway through late 2023 under current capital market conditions.
Notably, the company remains committed to achieving our revenue and vehicles on platform objectives for 2022.
“Executing a successful capital raise in this economic environment is a major achievement for Wejo and reflects our investors’, partners’, and directors’ confidence in the Company’s ability to improve business fundamentals as we focus our portfolio of solutions around the traffic and insurance product lines, said Richard Barlow, Wejo Founder and CEO.
“Sompo recognises Wejo’s significant value proposition, and its new investment will help us continue to advance our Smart Mobility platform. Additionally, our continued commercial partnership will allow the Company to accelerate its entry into the Japanese market. Our proprietary platform and products aim to transform the end-to-end insurance market and help Sompo realize cost synergies and additional revenue opportunities,” he added.
John Maxwell, Chief Financial Officer, said: “To work through these challenging times in the capital markets, we have taken measurable actions to accelerate our path to profitability, prioritising growth in the marketplaces and SaaS offerings with the highest near-term revenue opportunities. Our long-term plans have not changed other than timing of when other marketplaces will be launched. In addition to successfully raising additional capital through the PIPE offering, we have implemented a hiring freeze, eliminated non-revenue projects, and prioritised workflows to more squarely focus on revenue generation in the current year and into 2023. We will continue to pursue additional cost reduction initiatives, which will help us get to profitability sooner.”
Manages data for for smart mobility
Data from autonomous, electric and connected vehicles is becoming prolific as these become more connected. This creates an explosion of rich, reliable and accurate data.
Founded in 2014 by Richard Barlow in Manchester, Wejo has made it simple and secure to share and access connected car data. Its products can support autonomous, electric and connected vehicles on a global scale. It streamlines huge volumes of data to create new opportunities for autonomous, electric and connected vehicles.
It organises billions of data points from millions of connected cars, partnering with global automotive manufacturers to stream data at scale and speed. The company transforms and enhances big data, turning it into meaningful products that power innovations, drive efficiencies and innovate mobility.
Sources: TFN / ISTOCK
