Cambridge Mobile Telematics, which provides data about consumer driving habits to insurance companies, raised $350 million to expand its offerings in Europe and do more with AI models.
The Cambridge-based firm collects data, with consumers’ permission, from millions of vehicles, phones, and other smart devices to track people’s driving habits. The data is used by insurance companies to assess risks and price policies.
Cambridge Mobile also sells data to municipalities and agencies like the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to advise on road designs and traffic conditions and help reduce accidents.
The new funding came from private equity firm TPG and insurers including Allianz and State Farm. As part of the deal, Allianz will start using data from Cambridge Mobile from its insurance customers in Europe.
Cambridge Mobile, which employs about 450 people worldwide, said it would use the funding to further develop its AI models to perform real-time driving risk assessment and crash detection. The company is currently looking to add about 30 positions in Cambridge, mainly related to AI.
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“We’re applying the full power of AI to transform mobility on a global scale to help save lives, reduce costs, and support more sustainable transportation,” William Powers, co-founder and chief executive of Cambridge Mobile, said in a statement.
Insurers typically offer customers discounted rates in return for the customers agreeing to be tracked via telematics data. Cambridge Mobile collects data from connected cars and phones that can tell whether drivers are speeding, braking hard, or using their phones instead of paying attention to the road. The company says 21 of the top 25 US auto insurers use its data.
Using data about drivers’ actual behavior on the road may provide insurers more accurate information for pricing policies than charging based on where customers live or other demographics. It also avoids relying on controversial data like credit scores, which can reflect societal biases. And some studies have shown that people drive more cautiously when they know their behavior is being tracked.
Tuesday’s deal was not the largest fundraising by Cambridge Mobile, which spun out of MIT in 2010. The company raised $500 million from Japanese investment firm SoftBank in 2018. It acquired rival TrueMotion in 2021.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.
tracking firm Cambridge Mobile Telematics raises $350 million
