Why we invested in Eyevi
There is a moment in the life of every VC investor when he or she begins to think about expansion. More precisely, about foreign investment. After all, did you know, that RKKVC’s first foreign investment was SpaceX? Despite that, we were hungry for a new deals on an earlier stage. That’s why found Eyevi Technologies.
We met Eyevi at the end of 2020 at the StartupGrind conference in USA. We didn’t actually get to know each other in person then, but we got their pitch deck. We quickly got in touch with Gaspar Anton, the founder of the company, and started getting to know each other.
To be honest, we didn’t really catch the true potential of Gaspar at first. We knew the market very well, beauce it was a time while we wanted to acquire one company from the infrastructure secotr. In addition, the market on which the company operates — road infrastructure — how can it be sexy? Who would be interested in this? Fortunately, we are not one of those VC funds that only invests in “kitty tinders” 😊. At RKKVC, we try to look for potential where others may not see it! And in the case of Eyevi, that potential is huge.
Of course, first we had to spend a lot of time learning about their technology, its applicability and, above all, how to the company makes money… We had to learn a completely new market and technology.
What exactly EyeVi is
In short, Eyevi analyzes the road infrastructure. For this purpose, it uses computer vision technology, which enables infrastructure mapping with high accuracy. The question is why is this an interesting topic?
Currently, the main clients of EyeVi Technologies are surveying companies and road infrastructure managers. While the potential of the road infrastructure maintenance market is significant and stable, the emerging digital twins’ market (in which we also just invested, but shhh!) is much smaller, but it has a gigantic growth potential. With the development of autonomous vehicles, Eyevi expects to gain a significant market share in this market sector. The company plans to provide cost-competitive and highly accurate road network layouts that will be used by the automotive industry in the future.
Each year, local governments spend billions of euros on road infrastructure maintenance. The accumulating backlog in this topic affects countries all over the world. The status quo creates a vicious cycle in which low budgets postpone preventive maintenance in favor of more urgent and emergency repairs. Consequently, it leads to minor problems being ignored on a consistent basis until they become urgent needs. Innovative technology can help solve this problem, but modern equipment is too expensive and difficult to use, and software solutions for its needs are not very intuitive to use and slow to implement. As a result, the measurement and verification of the condition of the road infrastructure remains a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, often performed by engineers whose hours spent on the road increase the budget of the operation many times over.
The founders of Eyevi were committed to bringing the road infrastructure maintenance sector to the age of digital solutions. The startup provides tools for mobile mapping and processing of geospatial data in the SaaS model, using artificial intelligence to automate and streamline many processes.
What is the advantage of Eyevi over the competition is the fact that their software accounts for customers based on the number of kilometers analyzed, and if the customer needs it, the company is able to provide easy-to-install hardware solution anywhere in the world. It is worth mentioning, that hardware component is fully developed by the Company. In a situation where the customer already owns the mobile mapping equipment, the EyeVi platform is able to manage huge datasets from many compatible sensors.
EyeVi’s car
This solution allows for significant savings, both in terms of time and money. America’s current backlog of road infrastructure repair is estimated to be around $435 billion, and EyeVi technology can reduce these costs by as much as 50% compared to any conventional system.
The predictive analytics solutions used by EyeVi were developed jointly with the Tallinn University of Technology, where nearly EUR 2 million in subsidies were allocated to their research and development.
The company already has clients in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Poland, and USA. But its plans are much more ambitious — it is securing multimillion dollar contracts!
Team
The team’s extensive experience in the industry, both in the technological and business sphere, is one of those things that investors pay a lot of attention to.
Gaspar Anton, EyeVi’s founder and CEO, spent more than 10 years in management positions at Reach-U, the Estonian pioneer of geographic information systems (GIS). Along with several other members of the Eyevi team, Anton has also been involved in Baltic Road mapping for Google Street View.
Gaspar Anton, EyeVi founder and CEO
What is most important, however, is what kind of people they are. Gaspar and his team charmed us not only with their industry knowledge and experience, but above all with their attitude. They are typical doers who set a goal for themselves and then consistently pursue it. They develop long-term strategies that materialize. They are like chess players who see opportunities for a few moves ahead. I am certain, that every investor would like to have such founders in his portfolio.
Investment
RKKVC was one of the first funds to show interest in investing in EyeVi. Moreover, we introduced them to our international friends. In the round, apart from us, there were also: ffVC (USA), Decacorn Capital (Singapore), Iron Wolf Capital (Lithuania), Superangel (Estonia), Spring Capital (Estonia), Kaamos Group (Estonia) and several Estonian business angels including: Väino Kaldoja — founder of AuveTech and Taavi Rõivas — former Prime Minister of Estonia.
Next unicorn? Why not!
One of the things that caught our attention at EyeVi during our first meeting was the attitude of Gaspar, the CEO of EyeVi. Even today, a year after the first call, I remember his words that he wanted to make Eyevi a unicorn and join the Estonian “wall of fame”. We liked his enthusiasm, although we initially approached this declaration with a grain of salt. Today, after a year of acquaintance, seeing the company’s development and growth rate, we ourselves start to think of EyeVi as a potential unicorn. On the one hand, we can see the size of the market, on the other hand, the technological advantage over the competition. Additionally, the exceptional team is working very hard on promoting the company and acquiring new customers. Even as I write this article, Gaspar and his people are in the US for a business round trip. So who knows, maybe EyeVi will be the first unicorn in our portfolio. Finger crossed!
Eyevi team +myself planning the IPO.
Lessons for other startups
EyeVi is a great example of a startup that is “difficult to understand” for investors. It operates in a niche industry, and it is unlikely that people from VC would view such projects favorably. Even so, the founders found a way to convince investors. They patiently explained both the technological aspects (which we did not understand) and the business aspects (they “taught” us the market).
It is easier for investors to invest in another SaaS or marketplace because we know these topics well. They are safe for us. When it comes to a company like EyeVi, founders need to be patient and be ready for more refusals than startups statistically get.
But it’s worth the fight. Because it is precisely such unique and unusual startups, which additionally have a good plan for themselves, that are the most successful!
If you have an interesting startup and are looking for an investor, ping someone from RKKVC on LinkedIn.
