Featured Startup Pitch: Truvolo’s connected car device enables drivers to get real data about their driving and vehicle’s performance

By Jaideep Jain, Truvolo co-founder and CEO

Elevator Pitch: Truvolo is a well-connected car solution that stands to make driving safer and smarter.

Product/Service Description

We’ve created the TruvoloData mobile platform, which provides smart alerts and reports via an app to give users visibility into how their loved ones are driving and insight into how their cars are running. Truvolo provides answers to questions including: “Is my teenager speeding? Has my mother arrived at her destination safely? What does my check engine light mean? How’s my car’s fuel efficiency?” Ultimately, Truvolo provides trusted data that can increase safety, reduce annual maintenance costs, and give car owners and drivers peace-of-mind, whether they’re behind the wheel or not.

Founder’s Story

The inspiration behind Truvolo came in the form of our teenage son. It was during an early morning drive to his school that he reminded us he would soon be old enough to start driving. This immediately got my wife and I thinking: “Would he drive safely? What if he didn’t? Would we even know? With all the technology inside today’s cars, wouldn’t it be nice to know what is going on with the car when we are not riding in it?” We did some initial research, looking for a product that would strike a balance between maintaining our son’s freedom, while giving us, as parents, peace-of-mind. We soon found out this product didn’t really exist. As we began to develop the product, we realized that the data available in cars went far beyond driver safety. We realized that we could incorporate auto performance monitoring to ensure that not only was our son driving safely, but that the car was safe for him to drive in as well.

Market Opportunity

Since 1996, all cars sold in the U.S. have been required to have an OBD2 data port, which Truvolo utilizes to monitor and transmit vehicle data. That means there are some 250 million cars in the U.S. alone that could benefit from the Truvolo solution. Worldwide, there are 600 million vehicles.

How We Differentiate From the Competition

As we created our solution, we found that while there were a few products out there that dealt with parts of this puzzle, there was no complete and affordable solution to bridge the gap between the data available in our cars and our daily lives. We have created the only complete and affordable solution that integrates all the drivers and cars in your household into a single, easy-to-use application to track auto and driver performance without a required yearly subscription fee.

Business Model

Truvolo’s business model is two pronged: Initial revenue will come in the form of sales of the Truvolo device and a ‘freemium’ subscription to software and services. The sustained revenue generator will come in the form of a premium subscription, giving users access to power features such as advanced predictive analytics, customizable alerts, and support.

Current Needs

Truvolo is raising $2.6 million in Series A funding.

Truvolo has also recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to take preorders and raise money for production of the smart devices and apps, iOS capabilities (currently available for Android only), and additional future safety and performance features.

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Headquarters: San Jose