What (and Who) Is Otonomo?

Otonomo Technologies Ltd. and Software Acquisition Group Inc. II, a U.S. publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), announced on Feb. 1 an agreement for a business combination. Upon closing of the transaction expected in the second quarter, the combined company will operate under the Otonomo name and will be listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “OTMO.”

The combined company will have an estimated implied value of $1.4 billion. The transaction is expected to result in excess of $307 million in cash.

Otonomo, with worldwide headquarters in Israel and offices in Germany and San Francisco, dubs itself as a “one-stop shop for vehicle data,” allowing automotive OEMs to utilize that data to create new services and revenue streams.

Founded in 2015 by Ben Volkow, Otonomo’s vehicle data platform and marketplace connect to 16 OEMs as well as fleets and over 100 service providers. The platform ingests and enriches more than 4 billion data points per day from over 40 million global connected vehicles.

“Otonomo’s mission is to harness the immense potential of automotive data by providing thousands of organizations across a broad range of markets the ability to seamlessly access, explore, analyze, and unlock the full potential of vehicle data,” the company said in a statement.

Otonomo’s platform enables GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy-regulation-compliant solutions using both personal and aggregated data, the company said.

In addition to its data platform, Otonomo has developed a suite of SaaS offerings that provide data consumers with additional capabilities and vertically specific applications. 

Otonomo vehicle data is used by organizations and businesses in fleet management, insurance, in-vehicle management, emergency services, mapping, electric vehicle (EV) management, subscription-based services, parking, predictive maintenance, in-vehicle services, traffic management, and smart cities.

Volkow, previously CEO Traffix Systems and a cofounder, will remain as CEO after the transaction. The company’s advisors and board of directors include Stephen Girsky, former vice chairman of General Motors, Andy Geisse, former CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, and Amit Karp, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, also an investor.

“We aspire to create a mobility ecosystem that uses data to make every driving experience truly rewarding,” Volkow said in the statement. “Our vision is to enable a world of environmentally friendly cities that run more efficiently. Our data services platform reshapes, harmonizes, enriches and secures connected car data so that our growing network of technology partners and customers can deliver advanced driver and transportation solutions.”