Credit: Wiktionary.org
In 2011, Uriel, my co-founder and CTO was driving back home from Raanana, close to midnight, stopping at a signalized intersection. There was no on-coming traffic, yet he still waited, and waited some more. He knew of those underground sensors, so by moving back and forth he was trying to ‘hit the mark’ that would switch his light green. Five minutes later, the light finally changed. As an engineer by heart, he refused to accept that this is the best we can do.
Fast forward a few years and NoTraffic was founded, with the mission of fixing that bugging waiting time. As we looked deeper though, we learned that this is only the tip of the iceberg. A plethora of benefits and mobility services are hidden away, primarily because the lack of data, coupled with legacy infrastructure. 99% of traffic intersections in the US use fixed timing plans and 75% are not connected to any network. The foundation of our roads are in need of disruption, to usher-in the promise of true mobility and smart cities.
Today, I’m excited to announce our $17.5 million Round A funding, led by Nielsen Ventures and VEKTOR Partners, welcoming Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen to our team. Lars brings massive experience to our company, having held C-level positions at Uber, Dropbox, and WhatsApp. VEKTOR Partners is a Silicon-Valley based VC firm, focused on mobility disruption. I’m also excited to welcome Lior Handelsman, one of the founders of SolarEdge (Nasdaq: SEDG), to our board, leaning on his vast experience of scaling-up companies, taking NoTraffic to new heights. Personally, I look forward to working with Lars and Lior, a power-duo in mobility and global expansion, with deep understanding into our platform and what it takes to scale our business, as we work towards fulfilling our vision.
The first electric traffic light was installed on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 5, 1914, and really haven’t changed much since. The traffic light usually operates on a 120 seconds cycle, giving each side a portion of those two minutes, based on traffic flow, surveyed once every few years. With some 90 million new vehicles introduced to our roads every year, congestion, accidents and increased stress levels are inevitable outcomes. To enable true mobility, with multi-modal forms of transport, including autonomous vehicles, cities must invest in innovative technologies, replacing the existing legacy traffic management systems.
Our vision is to reinvent the way traffic is being managed, by laying the foundation, both digital and physical, for the future of mobility. Leveraging top-notch software and hardware, our platform is already managing traffic in Phoenix, Chandler, and Tucson in Arizona, as well as in the State of California, to name a few. On average, our platform has been shown to reduce waiting times by as much as 50%! In an average city of 250k residents, we’ve shown to remove 26k tons of emissions (equal to taking around 5,700 vehicles off the road), while saving motorists cumulated 4,655 months of time stuck in traffic jams. Cities across the US are eager to innovate, becoming smarter, more connected – offering value-added services to its residents.
The new funding will support our global expansion, as we scale to new markets in North America, Europe and Asia. In addition, we’re already doubling down on talent, recruiting for multiple positions in Israel and in the US, so check those out and apply. I’d like to thank our employees, an A-Team of experts (all of them are with us for >3 years!), from computer vision and AI algorithm engineers, to hardware design, manufacturing and supply chain management, data science, through operations and cybersecurity. I would also like to thank our investors, existing and new, for your vote of confidence in the team and the vision we’re charting for the future of mobility. And last but not least to our customers and partners around the globe, spanning the US, Japan, Italy, Israel (and a few others) for choosing NoTraffic as their foundation for the future of mobility – thank you!
We’re only getting started, stay tuned…
Tal.
P.S. in case you’re looking for the full press release – it’s here.
