Obvio, a company that improves traffic safety with an AI-based traffic camera solution, announced $22 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. Additional investors include Khosla Ventures and Pathlight Ventures.
Problem being addressed: Traffic fatalities have increased significantly over the past few years, becoming a national crisis. And each day in America, more than 100 people are killed in traffic accidents, resulting in more fatalities per mile driven than in most high-income nations.
Despite more than $35 billion of government funding spent, traffic fatalities are still higher than pre-pandemic levels. This is due to existing approaches (education, engineering, and limited enforcement) being grossly inadequate. Additionally, engineering projects such as road diets and roundabouts can cost millions of dollars and take years to complete. Education campaigns about traffic laws often fail to elicit meaningful change. There are not enough resources allocated toward traffic enforcement to squash the most dangerous behaviors on the roadways.
Obvio brings a new solution to traffic safety, providing municipalities and law enforcement with the tools needed to change driver behavior and foster a new culture of safety on the roadways. And Obvio deploys solar-powered AI cameras to: 1) detect a wide range of dangerous driving behaviors; 2) create visibility for community members; and 3) enable law enforcement to send citations to the most egregious violators automatically.
Use case: In Prince George’s County, Maryland, after two children were struck and killed near a school, Obvio collaborated with local leaders to launch a first-of-its-kind stop sign camera program. Obvio measured thousands of drivers running stop signs during pick-up and drop-off hours and began sharing statistics with communities at portals like letsdrivesafer.com/morningside. And the county used Obvio’s program to issue tickets, which reduced stop sign running by 50% within eight weeks.
Founders: Co-founders Ali Rehan and Dhruv Maheshwari met at Motive, where they built AI camera technology to help over 200,000 commercial fleet drivers drive more safely. And Ali, a second-time founder, incubated Motive’s industry-leading safety dashcam business, with Dhruv joining Motive from Google’s Augmented Reality team. After recognizing that Motive technology helped truck drivers reduce crashes, they are now applying those learnings and technology to public safety.
How the funding will be used: With these funds, Obvio will expand nationally and grow the team.
KEY QUOTES:
“Obvio was built to provide real accountability to drivers and avoid so many preventable injuries and fatalities. I see the need for change first hand. Every day I walk my daughter to school and see drivers blowing through stop signs. Even the crossing guards say they feel scared trying to keep children out of harm’s way.”
Ali Rehan, co-founder and CEO
“Even if I had 30 more officers, I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what we did with Obvio. We are moving closer to our 100% stop sign compliance goal – this has made both my residents and elected officials very happy.”
Dan Franklin, police chief of Morningside, Maryland, which is in Prince George’s County
“We were impressed to see the thoughtfulness by which the founders, Ali and Dhruv, were approaching communities: focusing on both safety and privacy. It was this, combined with product velocity and customer obsession, which has led to steep growth and insane levels of customer and market pull.”
Ajay Agarwal, partner at Bain Capital Ventures
