Idelic Raises $8M in Series A

Idelic, a Pittsburgh-based data and analytics company focused on improving safety in the commercial/industrial transportation industry, has closed on an $8M Series A financing round led by Origin Ventures with participation from TDF Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and SaaS Venture Capital. In conjunction with the financing, Scott Stern of Origin Ventures and Matt Bressler of TDF Ventures joined the company's Board of Directors.

"Origin Ventures is proud to announce our investment in Idelic's veteran team and industry-leading technology," said Scott Stern, Vice President at Origin Ventures. "Improving safety, compliance, and risk management in the transportation industry has been Idelic's core mission since the technology was developed at Pitt Ohio Express over a decade ago. These trucking insiders have the technological know-how, industry savvy, and management skills to build a scalable business and push the transportation industry's status quo into a more compliant, less risky, and safer future."

Idelic's Safety Suite is the most comprehensive safety and risk management platform in transportation. This software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution integrates all fleet systems into a single data management platform, giving fleet managers unparalleled visibility into driver behavior and safety operations. Idelic empowers fleet managers to prevent accidents, reduce turnover, and lower insurance costs with its industry-leading Driver Watch List, utilizing advanced proprietary machine learning technologies to predict drivers who are at risk for accidents.

The transportation industry spends nearly $10B on safety products and services every year to combat rising accident costs, which cost them $120B annually. "The ability for fleets to understand the vast amount of data surrounding their drivers is no longer impossible – it's now become a necessity for all fleets, regardless of size," said Idelic CEO Hayden Cardiff. "For many fleets, driver turnover surpasses 100% annually, at a cost topping $12K per driver. Driver retention is a major issue for our industry, and insurance companies now base their rates on a fleet's ability to mitigate driver risk. By better understanding driver behavior and creating a culture of safety, managers can better retain drivers while significantly boosting their fleets' bottom lines."

Idelic's co-founders, all Carnegie Mellon University graduates, launched the company in Pittsburgh, PA, in part to utilize the top talent the university produces. "Our office is minutes away from one of the top computer science schools in the world, allowing us to recruit from among the best students and graduates who want to make a real impact without having to move across the country. Pittsburgh has evolved into a premier technology innovation hub, providing recent graduates the ability to work on some of the world's most challenging problems, all with a significantly lower cost of living," said Nick Bartel, COO of Idelic.

Idelic will use this investment to grow its engineering and sales teams to meet increasing demand. The investment also paves the way for the release of a mobile application focused on driver engagement and retention.

"We have a dedicated team of data scientists hyper-focused on improving the Safety Suite's artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics models that help safety teams be proactive in preventing accidents, violations, citations, and injuries, and we're actively hiring to contribute to these efforts. The world is changing, and we're designing our technology to change with it," said Cardiff. "Imagining a world without accidents isn't so implausible anymore, and we want to lead the charge to create that safer tomorrow."

About Idelic
Idelic helps transportation fleets save time, money, and lives. The Idelic Safety Suite is the most comprehensive driver management platform in the transportation industry, integrating all fleet data systems into one single data management platform, giving fleets unparalleled visibility into driver behavior and safety operations. Idelic is an active participant and strong advocate of fleet safety through various industry organizations such as: Featured Product by the American Trucking Association (ATA), Five-Star Member of the National Private Truck Council (NPTC), Sponsor of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), National Tank Truck Carriers Inc., Insurance Task Force, Together For Safer Roads Coalition, and several State Associations. For more information, visit www.idelic.com.

About Origin Ventures
Origin Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 1999 based in Chicago and Salt Lake City, primarily focused on Seed and Series A equity investments in companies building products and services for the Digital Native economy. The partners are former operators and engineers with a combined 75+ years of venture investing experience and have produced $4.2B of aggregate company exit value. Origin Ventures is investing out of its $80M fourth fund. Previous investments include Grubhub, Teem, Ahalogy, Cameo, 15Five, BacklotCars, and Fountain. For more information, visit www.originventures.com.

About TDF Ventures
TDF Ventures invests in Seed and Series A stage start-ups focused on infrastructure, software, and services (IaaS, SaaS, XaaS). We invest from a $150M permanent pool of capital and are currently investing out of Fund IV. Current areas of focus include machine learning, logistics, next-gen infrastructure, data, and cybersecurity. TDF has offices in Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley. For more information, visit www.tdfventures.com.

About Birchmere Ventures
Since 1996, Birchmere Ventures has partnered with entrepreneurs to help build high-growth technology companies. The firm, with offices in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, has invested in many dozens of seed-stage start-ups, resulting in numerous IPOs and M&A transactions representing over $14B in value. More information about Birchmere Ventures can be found at www.birchmerevc.com.