Wejo, a UK-based connected vehicle data startup, has announced that Microsoft and Japanese insurance group Sompo have added a combined investment of $25 million as part of the company’s Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) financing. Microsoft and Sompo join General Motors and Palantir Technologies as strategic investors.
With this latest investment, the company now has $125 million in fully committed investment.
Wejo has also entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft to bring the power of connected vehicle data to the commercial sector. Under the new agreement, Wejo will build its suite of data and intelligence solutions on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. By combining forces, the two organisations say they “will unlock the power of connected vehicle data – providing customers with greater value, at scale and across multiple industries”.
It has also announced a partnership with global insurance provider Sompo Holdings and Palantir. This partnership creates an opportunity for connected vehicle data in the Japanese market.
Every day, Wejo collects more than 16 billion data points and analyses 48 billion journeys in near real-time across a network of 11 million live vehicles from a supply base of more than 50 million connected vehicles.
Richard Barlow, founder and CEO at Wejo, says, “Wejo is committed to becoming the universal communications and data stack for all connected vehicles. The new relationships with Microsoft and Sompo, combined with the additional investment they’ve provided, validate our vision and provide us with the critical resources we need to continue to lead the market and unlock additional value streams.”
Sanjay Ravi, general manager of automotive, mobility and transportation industries, Microsoft, adds, “Connected vehicle data creates the potential to drive broad transformation across industries. With Wejo’s extensive and growing data assets on Azure, together we have the opportunity to help customers make better business decisions, provide differentiated customer experiences, find new revenue streams and drive future innovation.”
