ATLANTA — Vechon Inc., a connected vehicle services company, announced $1.2 million in Series A funding for its Phase I market launch. Leading the round was The AIM Group, an angel investment management group active throughout the Southeast and based in Auburn, Ala. Super-angels Meade Sutterfield and Steve Chaddick of Atlanta, Ga., participated.
Vehcon extracts data from vehicles using smartphone technologies, enabling consumer to lower the total cost of vehicle ownership. The company’s patent-pending solutions capture predictive data, such as odometer readings and area of operation, and provide a platform for communicating offers back to the consumer. Funds for its Phase I market launch will be used for product development, and scaling of the technology platform and team.
“Vehcon’s smartphone solutions will disrupt the telematics industry with its very low cost alternative to providing reliable vehicular data,” said Meade Sutterfield, commenting on this investment. “In their previous successful companies, this team has developed complementary skill sets, as well as the requisite market and start-up experience, to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Vehcon was founded by innovators in vehicle telematics, mobile data analytics and mobile applications. Its executive team includes Co-Founder and CEO Fred Blumer, Co-Founder and CTO Joe Fuller, VP Product Lior Weinstein and VP Data Randy Holmes.
Blumer founded Vehcon after co-founding and exiting Hughes Telematics, a leading provider of telematics services to the automotive industry, last year. Hughes sold to Verizon for $612 million. Fuller is an expert in mobile data solutions and data aggregation, who has shepherded many Atlanta startups through inception to market launch, and from initial investment through recapitalization. Weinstein is a serial entrepreneur with early successes in mobile applications. He has led four companies to profitability and/or exit, and created products that are installed on hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. Holmes is recognized as an expert in data aggregation, data content management and telematics sales. He is a former executive of Qualcomm Inc., Hughes Telematics and ChoicePoint Inc.
The AIM Group encountered the startup through Flashpoint, a rigorous startup engineering process that works closely with founders to create companies. Vehcon also is an Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) Select company. ATDC is a startup accelerator that helps technology entrepreneurs in Georgia launch and build successful companies. Both Flashpoint and ATDC are associated with the Georgia Institute of Technology.
