SmartDrive Systems Inc, a leader in driver risk management systems and services, today announced that it has closed its Series C round of funding led by Oak Investment Partners with existing investors Revolution Ventures, The Founders Fund, and Western Technology Partners also participating. Financial details were not disclosed. Currently focused on the fleet vehicle segment, the SmartDrive service is an unique hardware and software solution that captures onboard video events of problematic driving incidents and then organizes the management, professional review, and driver improvement related to these incidents through a managed web-based portal service accessible anywhere/anytime by fleet managers, risk managers, drivers, and company executives. Fleet mangers utilizing the SmartDrive system are able to predict and prevent crashes, improve overall driver effectiveness, and realize annualized risk-related savings ranging from 50% to 90%, which equates to millions of dollars of savings for the typical mid-sized fleet. "The involvement of Oak in this round is an outstanding validation of SmartDrive's technology and opportunity," said Jim Plante, the company's founder and CEO. "Coming off the raise of the largest venture capital fund ever assembled, at $2.50 billion, Oak studied our emerging industry and determined that the SmartDrive offering was far ahead of the field. With the help of Oak's capital resources and management guidance, we can accelerate our product leadership advantage in this market and along the way, dramatically reduce unsafe driving throughout the world." "In many growing technology markets, vendors with the most scalable solutions tend to overtake the field and generate the most long-term value for stakeholders and customers," said David Walrod, General Partner at Oak Investment Partners. "With SmartDrive, we see a leader who's capitalized on the gap in customer needs and the inability of earlier entrants to address the full functional requirements of the space. With its highly scalable and efficient web-based model, SmartDrive has the superior architecture to win this market and also expand rapidly the range of services it offers the progressive fleet customer." Based in San Diego, SmartDrive mitigates risk by improving driver behavior and assessing liability in collisions. By combining sight and sound, event analysis and driver remediation, SmartDrive's automated event recorder (AER) technology and associated web-based service reduces vehicle damages, workers' compensation and personal injury costs by 50 to 90 percent. Customers include enterprise with fleets: from small- to mid-size fleets (e.g. ambulances, motor coaches, and taxi companies) to large 500+ fleets (e.g. school bus, utility, waste management, and transit companies). About Oak Investment Partners
Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm with a total of $8.4 billion in committed capital. The primary investment focus is on high growth opportunities in communications, information technology, new media, financial services information technology, healthcare services and consumer retail. Over a 28-year history, Oak has achieved a strong track record as a stage-independent investor funding more than 435 companies at key points in their lifecycle. For more information on Oak Investment Partners, please visit: www.OakVC.com.