TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Autofleet, a provider of AI-powered fleet optimization and vehicle-as-a-service solutions, today announced a capital raise totaling $7.5 million from a combination of Series A and seed financing. The Series A was led by MizMaa Ventures with participation from mobility-focused investors Maniv Mobility, Next Gear Ventures and Liil Ventures. The seed financing was led by Maniv Mobility.
The past decade has seen incredible growth in mobility business models such as ride-hailing and on-demand delivery, providing new means of transportation for millions of consumers. But these services have also increasingly been shown to increase congestion, struggle to retain driver supply, and lack a clear path to profitability. In parallel, traditional fleets have available and professionally-maintained vehicle supply that can be leveraged to fulfill the growing demand for mobility services, using only existing fleet assets.
Autofleet offers fleet owners and operators the tools to thrive and innovate in the new mobility landscape by automating fleet management for organizations including rental car companies, car sharing operators and car manufacturers to optimize existing business models and enable the launch of new mobility services. Autofleet has already partnered with global fleets and manufacturers such as Avis Budget Group, Zipcar, Keolis and Suzuki.
Autofleet’s platform transforms the vehicle into an elastic asset so that vehicles and rides can be spun up using an API. The platform leverages AI-based demand prediction and advanced rebalancing algorithms to centrally manage the fleet, breaking the dependence on manual and local decision making processes. By minimizing downtime and allowing for algorithmic dispatch of vehicles, the platform is designed to achieve more sustainable and profitable utilization of traditional fleet assets. Autofleet also provides a Ride & Vehicle simulator to enable operators to accurately plan and de-risk potential fleet deployments without needing a single vehicle on the road.
Fleets working with Autofleet have benefitted from the platform to more efficiently manage their field operations team and re-balance car-sharing and rental vehicles to increase fleet utilization while improving customer experience. The platform is enabling other fleet partners to transition and tap into new sources of demand such as ride-hailing trips and delivery orders. Especially now, facing the challenges of COVID-19, Autofleet is equipping fleets with the ability to shift vehicle assets to meet the acute need for logistics and medical transportation by quickly launching on-demand delivery and transportation from unutilized fleet assets.
"We at MizMaa have been highly impressed by the Autofleet team and what they are building to optimize and manage fleets for new mobility services,” said Aaron Applbaum, General Partner at MizMaa Ventures. “Every player along the new mobility value chain is facing an imbalance of vehicle availability to market demand. With Autofleet's vehicle-as-a-service layer, supply becomes elastic, making these new business models sustainable."
The funds will fuel Autofleet’s expansion into more international markets, help grow its research and development team, and accelerate its work to create new opportunities for utilizing vehicle fleets.
“Autofleet is building the most adaptive and scalable solution for managing supply side constraints,” said Olaf Sakkers, General Partner at Maniv Mobility. “As a mobility focused investor, we have learnt that the supply side is the much harder portion of the equation to make work, which is why we believe Autofleet is perfectly positioned.”
“Autofleet’s mission is to provide fleet owners the tools needed to realize the full potential of asset-heavy fleets in their transition to becoming the mobility service providers of the future,” said CEO Kobi Eisenberg. “We couldn't be more excited to partner with investors that share that vision and offer unique focus and expertise in the mobility industry to accelerate our mission globally.”
About Autofleet
Autofleet provides the leading Vehicle-as-a-Service platform for fleets to optimize existing operations and to seamlessly launch new business models from existing assets. The platform leverages advanced machine-learning algorithms for demand prediction, optimized placement and matching, automated pit-stop management and in/de-fleeting, and more. For more information, please visit https://www.autofleet.io/.