Waycare Acquired by Rekor Systems

SJF Ventures portfolio company Waycare Technologies has been acquired by Rekor Systems, a Govtech company focused on intelligent infrastructure and smart cities. Waycare is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based connected mobility platform for transportation agencies that provides actionable insights and predictive analytics to improve traffic and safety management operations. Waycare’s technology will enhance Rekor’s existing suite of solutions for safety and incident management, while furthering their joint mission of building safer, smarter, and more efficient cities.

SJF led Waycare’s Series A financing in 2019, excited by the company’s solutions to address inefficiencies within traditional mobility and traffic management models. SJF recognized Waycare for its unique ability to ingest and analyze multiple disparate traffic and mobility data feeds with AI, and to serve local, state, and national government and transportation agencies in a new, tech-forward, streamlined way. Waycare is an Israeli company and was SJF’s first non-U.S. based investment, with a technology team based in Tel Aviv and U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, California.

Waycare’s founders were intentional about positioning social impact at the center of their work and tackling one of the most challenging and dangerous problems in the world—roadway safety. Car accidents result in tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year, and millions of injuries, not to mention the traffic congestion and resulting emissions that follow. Having already demonstrated improvements in reducing both primary and secondary crashes through its first commercial deployment with Southern Nevada in 2017, Waycare was well on its way to reducing the number of people seriously injured or killed in car crashes at the time of SJF’s investment. Fast forward two years and Waycare’s impacts have proven substantial across ten states.

A 2020 case study describes how the Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) implemented Waycare in 2018 to improve incident identification and response times, and to foster better cross-agency collaboration. As a result, the agency benefitted from an average 9-minute reduction in incident identification time, greater context of incident details prior to arriving on scene, improved coordination across partner agencies, and enhanced tools for incident prevention.[1] A recent white paper documenting Waycare’s partnership with the NHP and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) showed an 18% decline in traffic crashes and a 43% reduction in drivers going above the posted speed limit in the selected interstate corridors.[2] This partnership was made possible through a Road to Zero grant funded by the National Safety Council to support efforts to end roadway deaths (one of the leading causes of death) in the U.S. by 2050.

While Waycare’s impact on traffic incident detection and mitigation is significant, SJF also saw the potential for environmental benefits of smoothing the flow of traffic. Waycare recently engaged a University of California-Riverside team to help quantify the potential energy savings and emissions reductions of Waycare’s traffic incident management strategies. A forthcoming report will outline the meaningful environmental benefits of reducing congestion, particularly the heavy congestion caused by accidents and other significant incidents on the roads.

Waycare’s technology, in conjunction with Rekor’s products and scale, will enable a new paradigm for traffic management operations in which governments can be proactive in preventing accidents before they occur.  At scale, this company will save many lives, avoid serious injuries, and make our cities safer, cleaner, and more efficient.  SJF congratulates Noam Maital (CEO) and the entire Waycare family on this milestone for the business.

Dan Geballe and Dave Kirkpatrick led the Waycare investment and Dan served on the Waycare Board of Directors until the acquisition.

Read more about the acquisition in Rekor Systems’ press release.

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About Waycare Technologies, Ltd.

 Waycare is committed to making today’s roads safer and more accessible through its cloud-based, artificial intelligence (AI) traffic management and transit solutions. Waycare works collaboratively with traffic management centers, law enforcement, service patrol, and other agencies to bring together the widest array of data partnerships in the industry to produce an all-in-one traffic management platform. This Software as a Service (SaaS) solution enables actionable traffic safety insights and predictions including real-time automated incident and irregular congestion detection, crash prediction and forecasting, and collaborative tools for more efficient responses and planning to better serve drivers on the roads. For more information, visit waycaretech.com.

References:

[1] “Nevada Highway Patrol Case Study,” 2020.

[2] “Southern Nevada Road to Zero Program: A Comprehensive Report on the Safety and Economic Impact of Deploying AI-based Predictive Analytics and Preventive Activities in Las Vegas,” 2021.