Latest news with #Netradyne
Time of India
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
With 98% R&D in India, Netradyne puts Indian deeptech on the global mobility map
Every year, about 1.2 million lives are snuffed out in road accidents worldwide, according to a World Health Organisation report. Of this, India reports the most number of fatalities. But this deeptech startup, which is also the first unicorn of 2025 in India, is out on a mission to improve road safety and efficiency by leveraging cutting-edge technology that transforms the transportation industry. Netradyne , founded in 2015 by Avneesh Agrawal and David Julian–both Stanford alumni–provides AI-powered fleet safety and video telematics solutions , a form of passive ADAS ( Advanced Driver Assistance System ). Its flagship product– Driver•i– powered by advanced AI analyses every minute of drive time with up to 99 per cent accuracy, recognising both risky and safe driving behaviours. With over 20 billion of driving miles analysed, the company claims the product has delivered a significant reduction in accident rates amongst its users. 'Our customers from India and the US have reported a 50 per cent reduction in accident rates,' Durgadutt Nedungadi, Senior Vice President, Netradyne, told ETAuto. Now, the San Diego-based startup is planning to launch a new line of products which will raise the bar further in its preemptive approach to road safety, with a focus on detecting driver fatigue. 'Shortly, we will launch products which focus on the sleep cycle. By using advanced technology, we have worked on a number of these sleep scales that study blink rates. In this way, we can raise an alert early in the cycle when a driver is sleepy,' said Nedungadi. In the near future, we will also work on technology that can capture pupil dilation to detect state of inebriation, he added. Profitability & R&D focus The Softbank-backed startup has recently announced its global expansion plans, with a target to expand its footprint to 15 countries. The company currently has commercial operations spanning 10 countries, including India, but counts the US as its biggest market. 'About 90 per cent of our sales come from the US. But, over the next few years, we want to reach a stage where the rest of the world contributes a far greater percentage of revenues so that we're truly a global kind of company, notes Nedungadi. Fresh from its Series D round funding, the company has set its eyes on revenue growth while chasing profitability. Over the last two years, the company registered a growth of over 50 per cent and intends to continue the momentum. While not specifying a timeline, Nedungadi emphasised the goal of achieving profitability in the near-term horizon. In 2024, it generated a revenue of $210 million (around ₹1,743 crore). The startup, which has over 3000 customers across the markets including Shell, IndianOil, among others, is also in talks with a number of OEMs from the commercial vehicle segment to explore potential collaborations and integration of its technology. The company has a deep focus on R&D, with about 550 of its 850 employees engaged in the tech area. " Our company has upwards of 30 patents to its name. For us, tech is the important aspect and unless we keep innovating, we will not get to where we really want to be," noted Nedungai. "Although the company is incorporated in San Diego, our tech headquarter is in Bengaluru," he added. With over 98 per cent of its R&D based in India, this startup is not just fostering the future of safe mobility, but also amplifying India's deeptech presence on the global map.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
How India-built AI is transforming global road safety
A safety revolution is being scripted inside fleet vehicles — not with seat belts or speed governors, but with high-powered cameras, edge processors and AI models trained to detect everything from drowsy drivers to heavy snow. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now One of the leaders in such technology is Netradyne, which has its R&D engine in Bengaluru and a footprint that now spans 10 countries – soon to be 15. Backed by Reliance, SoftBank, Microsoft's M12 and Qualcomm, Netradyne recently joined India's unicorn club after raising $90 million in Series D funding. Its core product is an advanced computer vision system that analyses real-time driving behavior via dual/ quad HD cameras and edge AI – delivering live audio alerts to drivers and analytics to fleet operators operating 450,000 vehicles worldwide. It detects risks such as drowsiness, unsafe following distance, or traffic violations, and issues instant in-cab alerts. The system also captures positive driving actions, generating a composite driver score that correlates with accident risk. 'We began in the US and India deliberately because driving conditions are polar opposites. If our models could handle both, we'd have a globally adaptable baseline,' Durgadutt Nedungadi, senior VP for EMEA and Apac at Netradyne, says. Early tests with off-the-shelf hardware, including SD cards and SIM slots, failed under temperature and power constraints, prompting the company to design a custom edge platform optimised for thermal conditions, latency and realtime compute. David Julian, CTO and who co-founded the company with Avneesh Agrawal (both were in Qualcomm for many years before founding Netradyne in 2015), notes that edgefirst processing, instead of cloud-based decisions, remains central to the platform. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'When you're delivering incab alerts, you need a very high precision rate. Otherwise, the driver loses trust,' he says. The company has built out a feedback loop that moves data from the field to labelling pipelines and back to the device via over-the-air updates, allowing it to continuously improve model accuracy in live environments. The platform's real-time coaching capability was a major evolution from earlier generations of driver safety systems. 'Legacy systems relied on days-later video reviews. We wanted to cut that feedback loop to minutes, even seconds,' Julian says. 'That shift led to measurable improvements in compliance and safety.' Netradyne's use cases span last-mile delivery vehicles, school buses, oil and fuel tankers, and employee transport fleets. In India, its clients include Shell, Indian Oil Skytanking, Writer Safeguard, and Greenline. 'We're also seeing strong adoption in tier-2 cities where last-mile logistics is growing rapidly,' says Nedungadi. The tech platform has evolved to support facial recognition, seatbelt compliance, U-turn detection, and predictive warnings such as forward collision and pedestrian alerts. Netradyne is also among the few global players capable of traffic light analytics on the edge, a technically complex feature that factors in signal states, lane positioning and surrounding traffic to assess driver behaviour. TRACKING POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR Its unique ₹driver stars' functionality recognises positive behaviour – for instance, if a driver proactively slows down to allow safer merges. 'That's actually harder to detect than violations, because it requires deeper contextual understanding,' Julian says. The platform processes up to a billion miles of driving data monthly and generates a ₹GreenZone' score, akin to a credit score, which aggregates risk and compliance factors. This feeds into a virtual coaching system that prioritises the most critical behavioural corrections for each driver, pushing targeted video training and app-based feedback loops. In colder regions, Netradyne has added modules for snow and fog detection, now live in parts of the US and Europe.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Deeptech startups snagged $324 million in first four months of the year
ETtech Live Events The R&D-focused and innovation-anchored deeptech ecosystem, contrary to perception, is lately drawing more money—and deals. Venture Intelligence data showed investments in deeptech doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals, compared with $156 million in the same period last year that saw 21 such of the biggest deeptech deals in 2025 included a $90 million investment in Netradyne , an AI-based fleet management platform, by Qualcomm Ventures, Point72 Ventures and others; $54 million in SpotDraft, an AI-based contract management firm, from Trident Capital and others; $35 million investment in predictive maintenance service platform Infinite Uptime by Tiger Global, GSR Ventures and $21 million in Tonbo Imaging, which offers imaging and sensor systems to military, by Florintree and broadly refers to technology-based innovation that hinges on advanced scientific and engineering research, which require significant expertise, capital and union minister Piyush Goyal 's comment on the lack of a deeptech ecosystem certainly triggered the conversation, deeptech ecosystem has been seeing increasing interest for a while Natarajan, managing partner, Mela Ventures, said that unlike a few years ago, deeptech is seeing more commercial use cases making the sector Subramaniam, managing partner, Yali Capital, which has Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an advisor, said that there are more companies that are being created in deeptech now than before. This is formed by people from premier institutions and executives from multinational companies, who are choosing to stay back in the Shankar, co-founder, Java Capital, a deeptech fund, said that recent times have seen several government initiatives that attempt to grow the deeptech ecosystem in the country such as Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds to invest in deeptech and other initiatives that support semiconductors, space, and these are resulting in increased competition for deeptech deals in India.A partner from a deeptech fund told ET that they are now competing with larger players in early stage deeptech deals and are closing more as well. 'This year alone we have closed 4-5 deals at a higher valuation. We used to do 7-8 per year,' the investor Capital's Shankar said that initial investment for deeptech companies is now upwards of $4-5 million now, compared to $2-3 million a couple of years is also gaining momentum. For instance, Mela Ventures has invested along with Blume in Optimized ElectroTech, a defence technology Natarajan said that, unlike consumer technology startups, the model of investment for deeptech needs to be different as it takes a longer time to commercialise. 'If it is a 3–5-year horizon for consumer technology startups, in deeptech it requires 8-10 years. They also need intense involvement, hand-holding and mentoring to help them through the process,' he addition, one of the key challenges is also market creation. Natarajan explained that in many cases these startups are catering to the market that either does not exist or require firms to adopt a newer way. While funds like them are helping companies to reach the commercialisation stage, there is a need for intervention to drive market adoption. 'Like how the government offered subsidies for EVs (electric vehicles) there must be some incentives for customers to adopt deeptech solutions,' he added.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Deeptech startups raked in $324 million in first four months of this year
The R&D-focused and innovation-anchored deeptech ecosystem, contrary to perception, is lately drawing more money—and deals. Venture Intelligence data showed investments in deeptech doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals, compared with $156 million in the same period last year that saw 21 such commitments. Some of the biggest deeptech deals in 2025 included a $90 million investment in Netradyne , an AI-based fleet management platform, by Qualcomm Ventures, Point72 Ventures and others; $54 million in SpotDraft, an AI-based contract management firm, from Trident Capital and others; $35 million investment in predictive maintenance service platform Infinite Uptime by Tiger Global, GSR Ventures and $21 million in Tonbo Imaging, which offers imaging and sensor systems to military, by Florintree and others. Deeptech broadly refers to technology-based innovation that hinges on advanced scientific and engineering research, which require significant expertise, capital and time. While union minister Piyush Goyal 's comment on the lack of a deeptech ecosystem certainly triggered the conversation, deeptech ecosystem has been seeing increasing interest for a while now. ETtech Live Events More interest Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Krishnakumar Natarajan, managing partner, Mela Ventures, said that unlike a few years ago, deeptech is seeing more commercial use cases making the sector attractive. Ganapathy Subramaniam, managing partner, Yali Capital, which has Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an advisor, said that there are more companies that are being created in deeptech now than before. This is formed by people from premier institutions and executives from multinational companies, who are choosing to stay back in the country. Vinod Shankar, co-founder, Java Capital, a deeptech fund, said that recent times have seen several government initiatives that attempt to grow the deeptech ecosystem in the country such as Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds to invest in deeptech and other initiatives that support semiconductors, space, and biotech. All these are resulting in increased competition for deeptech deals in India. Rising competition A partner from a deeptech fund told ET that they are now competing with larger players in early stage deeptech deals and are closing more as well. 'This year alone we have closed 4-5 deals at a higher valuation. We used to do 7-8 per year,' the investor said. Java Capital's Shankar said that initial investment for deeptech companies is now upwards of $4-5 million now, compared to $2-3 million a couple of years ago. Co-investing is also gaining momentum. For instance, Mela Ventures has invested along with Blume in Optimized ElectroTech, a defence technology startup. Challenges Persist Mela's Natarajan said that, unlike consumer technology startups, the model of investment for deeptech needs to be different as it takes a longer time to commercialise. 'If it is a 3–5-year horizon for consumer technology startups, in deeptech it requires 8-10 years. They also need intense involvement, hand-holding and mentoring to help them through the process,' he explained. In addition, one of the key challenges is also market creation. Natarajan explained that in many cases these startups are catering to the market that either does not exist or require firms to adopt a newer way. While funds like them are helping companies to reach the commercialisation stage, there is a need for intervention to drive market adoption. 'Like how the government offered subsidies for EVs (electric vehicles) there must be some incentives for customers to adopt deeptech solutions,' he added.
Business Standard
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Eminent Transit Selects Netradyne Technology to Elevate Safety in Employee Transport Services
VMPL Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 7: Netradyne, a leading provider of AI-powered fleet and driver safety technology, and Eminent Transit, a premier pan-India travel solutions provider specializing in corporate travel, employee transportation, and urban mobility announce a partnership to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability in transportation services across India. Eminent Transit will integrate Netradyne's cutting-edge Driveri technology into its fleet operations. Driveri provides a real-time data analysis and in-depth insights into driver behavior by analyzing 100% of the driving time. This integration will empower Eminent Transit to deliver exceptional safety standards and operational excellence to its extensive customer base. "We serve over 70 corporates in more than 160 cities across India with a combination of fleets, delivering executive-class journey." shared Ravi Kiran, CEO of Eminent Transit. "Deployment of Netradyne's Driveri will ensure that we enhance and deliver world-class comfort and top-tier safety to our esteemed customers. This innovative solution not only elevates the safety, reliability, and efficiency of our transportation services but also provides essential protection for women employees traveling late at night. Through real-time monitoring, Driveri ensures compliance while safeguarding drivers from false claims. And with real-time insights into risky driving and personalized coaching, we enhance our driver training programs, ensuring an exceptional experience for our customers". "Eminent Transit is known for delivering premium travel experiences to corporate clients across India," said Durgadutt Nedungadi, Sr. Vice President of International Business at Netradyne. "With our AI-powered Driveri™ technology, we're helping elevate those experiences further--by enabling safer, smoother, and more secure rides. From reducing harsh driving events to protecting drivers with real-time video intelligence, this partnership is all about setting new standards in transportation safety and operational excellence." About Eminent Transit Eminent Transit is a pan-India travel solutions company that specializes in business, events, leisure, loyalty, and corporate mobility. The company serves corporate travelers with cost-effective and creative travel management solutions. With over 70 corporate clients, a presence in more than 160 cities, and a fleet of 1,500-plus vehicles, Eminent Transit has continuously evolved, innovated, and expanded its operational network. The company's journey from its inception in 2017 as a local provider in Bangalore to becoming a pan-India travel solutions company reflects its commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. With a focus on safety, reliability, and innovation, Eminent Transit is dedicated to enhancing the transportation experience for individuals and businesses across the nation. About Netradyne: Netradyne is a global provider of AI-powered fleet and driver safety solutions. Its flagship product, Driveri, leverages AI and edge computing to deliver real-time feedback and insights that improve driver behavior and fleet safety. Today, it is an industry leader in advanced fleet safety solutions with customers across India, U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., Australia, and New Zealand--with marquee investors on board like Softbank, Reliance, M12 (Microsoft's venture arm), and Point72 Ventures. Netradyne was founded by two Stanford University graduates and technologists, Avneesh Agarwal and David Julian. Netradyne currently markets 'Driveri', a fleet safety and coaching platform. Its technology uses deep learning and edge computing to bring rich contextual insights and solutions to the transportation industry to help fleets establish safe driving practices.
