Connected vehicle data company Wejo Limited has announced its intention to appoint administrators.
The Manchester-headquartered business is listed on the Nasdaq in the US, where its share priced crashed yesterday from 27 cents to 12 cents.
Wejo, which was founded in 2014 and ranked sixth on our TransportTech 50 ranking late last year, was at one point valued at $800 million and tipped to achieve unicorn status.
However its market cap is currently $13.5m and there’s speculation that Nasdaq could delist it.
An insider told BusinessCloud: “There’s been a sea change among investors globally when it comes to investing in high growth, loss-making, tech stock. Wejo has been a victim of that.
“Given the fact Wejo’s quarterly results were only a few weeks ago the news has come as a real shock.”
The business is headquartered at the ABC Building, in Manchester, but has offices around the world, predominately in US.
It’s thought the company employs just under 200 people.
There’s been no official comment from Wejo but it’s understood the company has filed a notice in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts in Manchester of its intention to appoint Andrew Poxon and Hilary Pascoe of Leonard Curtis Recovery Limited as administrators.
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Wejo, which was founded by Richard Barlow, is evaluating whether it will file ancillary insolvency proceedings for the company and its other subsidiaries in other jurisdictions, including in the United States, in due course.
BusinessCloud has contacted Barlow and Leonard Curtis Recovery for comment.
Wejo is a global leader in cloud and software analytics for connected, electric, and autonomous mobility.
The company processes trillions of data points from 20.8 million vehicles, of which 13.9 million were active on the platform transmitting data in near real-time, and over 94.6 billion journeys globally.
The game-changing moment for Wejo came in 2018 when General Motors took a 35 per cent stake in the business. It’s believed the data will belong to General Motors.
The idea for Wejo (which comes from the words ‘we’ and ‘journey’) was sparked by Barlow’s passion for motor racing and Formula 1, where data is routinely collected to improve performance.
He realised if the connected data technology in motor racing could transition into the mainstream automotive sector he would have a business – and so Wejo was launched in 2014.
“The majority of new cars sold in the world, and most people don’t know this, have telemetry in the car,” Barlow told BusinessCloud in an earlier interview.
“Your average car has 200 sensors now. The motor manufacturers don’t have a platform to send the data to and that’s where Wejo comes in.”