Skymeter: Smart metering for vehicles
Stuck in traffic?
Imagine never paying a parking ticket, or slowing down to drop coins in a tollbooth again. Imagine your car insurance bill only charges you for exactly how much you drive. Imagine fewer traffic jams. Imagine different drivers being charged for road maintenance according to the type of vehicle they drive and which roads they travel on.
These are only a few of the capabilities that Skymeter’s new turbo-charged on-board GPS unit makes possible. Skymeter’s secret is a geo-location algorithm five-years in the making. Skymeter allows laser-precise geographic vehicle location in almost any driving condition. Urban canyons, GPS signal failure, “echo”…these are all things of the past thanks to Skymeter’s innovation. The company is currently making waves in the “green” market, after partnering with ZeroFootprint to provide ultra-accurate measures of vehicular greenhouse gas emissions.
Kamal Hassan, CEO, Skymeter
Skymeter hasn’t always had an easy time of it. For years, the company struggled to convince potential investors of the value of its technology. Without a working prototype, the company’s CEO, Kamal Hassan, was repeatedly told that the opportunity was “too early” for traditional venture investors. Undaunted, Kamal turned his focus toward the angel community. In January of 2007, Kamal accomplished the impossible, convincing 11 angels to invest alongside himself in Skymeter. This crucial funding allowed for the development of a prototype to prove the accuracy of Skymeter’s technology to the greater market. Becoming a resident of the MaRS incubator, Skymeter began to attract the attention of larger investors and potential industry partners. Skymeter recently closed a round of venture funding in the amount of $500,000 from the Investment Accelerator Fund, allowing for a broader validation of its technology, alongside a major push for the company’s first commercial rollout. Skymeter is also causing buzz among the cities and localities considering toll systems to mitigate traffic congestion. As a solution that doesn’t require the installation of a massive and expensive system of ground-based cameras and RFID readers, the company is head-and-shoulders ahead of the competition in terms of cost and accuracy.
Location: Toronto, ON
Website: http://www.skymetercorp.com/
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