Terminal Technologies Inc., a Toronto company whose software platform standardizes data from hundreds of hardware devices that collect information from commercial vehicles, has raised US$20-million in venture capital.
Battery Ventures led the financing, which was also backed by Intact Financial Corp.’s private capital arm and transportation giant Penske Corp., plus early backers Y Combinator and Wayfinder Ventures. Terminal did not disclose terms, but said its valuation had increased fivefold since it raised US$3.1-million in a 2023 seed financing led by Golden Ventures.
The 17-person startup aims to solve an issue for customers of the telematics industry, whose purveyors combine telecommunications and information technology in devices that plug into vehicles and record, send and store the data they receive. These include electronic devices that track engine and GPS data and dash cameras.
Telematics customers typically include fleet managers who use the data to track safety and fuel consumption and predict when vehicles will require maintenance. Geotab Inc., based in Oakville, Ont., and Samsara Inc. of San Francisco are leaders in the industry, which has taken off in the past decade after the United States and Canada enacted mandatory electronic logging requirements for commercial vehicle operators.
But it’s a fragmented business, with hundreds of hardware providers collecting data. That presents a challenge for insurers, fleet managers and logistics companies who receive the data transmitted from the various machines, often in different formats, Raghav Midha, chief executive officer and co-founder of Terminal, said in an interview. They have had to build infrastructure to connect to each telematics feed then store the data themselves, a cumbersome solution that’s hard to scale, he said.
Terminal has built a neutral software layer that takes feeds from about 325 different types of telematics service providers, manages consent and authorization, and validates the data before presenting them in a common, standardized format to end-users.
“It really requires a third party that can be the Switzerland, the unifier, that abstracts away all the complexities and quirky differences between these devices and their manufacturers while, from the perspective of the customer of that data, feeling completely transparent,” said Marcus Ryu, a San Francisco-based partner with Battery.
One of Terminal’s earliest customers was Toronto-based Intact, which uses the data to help more accurately price auto insurance policies for commercial customers, offering discounts for drivers who deploy telematics technologies and drive responsibly. The insurance company uses Terminal as part of its IntelliRoute program, which has enrolled more than 150 fleets so far, enabling more than $900 in annual cost savings per truck by customers, Intact said.
Justin Smith-Lorenzetti, managing director with Intact Private Capital, said Terminal “has really been able to win hearts and minds of key decision makers” in the insurance industry. ”Our commercial teams are enamoured of the way they operate, the quality of the product, and we’re big fans of what Raghav has been able to do," he said.
Mr. Midha and Connor Giles, Terminal’s co-founder and chief technology officer, met earlier this decade while working at Toronto financial technology company NorthOne, where they dealt with integrating different software tools, before deciding to start a company.
They were drawn to the transportation industry, where both had familial connections: Mr. Giles had built software for his family’s logistics company, Dynamic Connections, while Mr. Midha’s family operated gas stations and later an HVAC repair business that had a fleet of vehicles.
While researching the industry prior to starting their business in 2023, “we mapped out many pain points, but one thing that stood out was this challenge of so much data being generated in the industry and the challenge of interoperability and integration between systems,” Mr. Midha said.
Terminal plans to use the infusion of capital to expand further across its core markets, the company said. Mr. Midha declined to share Terminal’s revenues or customer count.