One of the stars of the Yorkshire tech scene has been snapped up in a deal worth a potential £52 million.
Sheffield-based The Floow has developed a mobile and scoring telematics technology for the connected insurance industry. Its revenue was estimated at around £5m for 2021.
Israeli firm Otonomo Technologies, a mobility intelligence company listed on the Nasdaq in New York, said the cash and stock deal was valued at around £52m including a performance-based earnout of up to £28m.
The acquisition is subject to approval by UK regulators and is expected to close within the second quarter of 2022.
Otonomo’s cloud platform uses artificial intelligence, sensor data and behavioural pattern mapping from more than 50m accessible connected vehicles and more than 430m accessible mobility end devices to provide insights for the optimisation of vehicle insurance, emergency services, mapping, traffic management, EV management, micro-mobility, predictive maintenance and dozens of smart city solutions.
The firms said the combination of vehicle and mobile data from Otonomo and The Floow will be crucial to enabling innovative, usage-based and behavioural-based insurance products. The aim is to move from ‘detect and repair’ to ‘predict and prevent’ models to create safer, greener and smarter driving experiences for policy holders.
“Together, we believe Otonomo and The Floow will create the opportunity for both OEMs and insurance companies to accelerate the utilisation of their data, create new products, improve customer experiences and accelerate business transformation,” said Ben Volkow, CEO of Otonomo.
“We are pleased to be joining forces with The Floow’s CEO Aldo Monteforte, a visionary in his field, and the entire team.”
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Monteforte said: “I could not be prouder to announce we are joining the Otonomo team. This is a big, bold step that brings us closer to our vision of safer and smarter mobility for all.
“Our clients and partners, some of the leading insurers of the world, will have access to a significant and unique set of data products, tools and resources to help them compete and thrive in a connected new world ahead.”