Together for Safer Roads’ GEP Program Spurred Company Growth and Fundraising Opportunities for Idelic

As our 2020 Global Entrepreneur Program (GEP) gets underway, we’ve been taking a look back at how cohort 2 companies fared after participating. Today’s interview is with Hayden Cardiff, Founder and CEO of Idelic, one of the three companies in the 2019 GEP cohort. Idelic integrates all fleet systems into a single data management platform, giving fleet managers unparalleled visibility into driver behavior and safety operations. Thus, it was a perfect fit for the Together for Safer Roads accelerator. 

We were able to talk with Cardiff and learn more about what made the program so impactful for Idelic.

What made you decide to participate in the Global Entrepreneur Program in the first place?

The companies in the consortium were really impressive. A few that stood out to us were AIG, Geotab, and Walmart. We’re in growth mode, and really focused on adding drivers and fleets. So for us, the opportunity to connect with these companies made the program extremely attractive.

Together for Safer Roads was also well-aligned with our mission to help get drivers home safe each night, so it was a great fit. And the application process was extremely smooth and easy.

When you were making the decision to participate in the Together for Safer Roads GEP experience, did you include investors in the decision?

Yes we did. When we originally received the invitation to pitch, we had a full conversation with our Board and investors. All of them were overwhelmingly positive, and thought it was a great opportunity. After we were accepted to the program, we leveraged our participation for raising additional capital, highlighting it as momentum and traction in our pitches to investors. I’m happy to say that we just announced our Series A financing round of $8M led by Origin Ventures with participation from TDF Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and SaaS Venture Capital. 

In regards to the member companies, did you end up working with any of them as a result?

Yes, Republic Services gave us an initial sponsorship, providing mentorship and feedback as well. Now, we’re in ongoing conversations with them about running a pilot program. Conversations and access to industry leaders like this are what make the GEP such an attractive accelerator. It certainly moved the needle on opportunities for us. The TSR coalition has many tier one private sector companies involved, which is unique. 

You’ve grown quite a bit in the last year. Do you feel the program made an impact?

Absolutely. As a startup, we felt like it really helped us, and we had a strong year of growth as a result. We focused on nailing down new products, features, and functionality with input from TSR members. We accelerated the ability for our customers to see and understand ROI in terms of crash and claims reduction and a decrease in driver turnover. We’ve seen a 40-45% drop in those different categories with our customers, which is a very encouraging result.

Now, we’re building out our engineering and sales teams to meet increasing demand, and paving the way for the release of a mobile application focused on driver engagement and retention. Participating in TSR’s GEP definitely had a positive impact on all of this development, making introductions and building relationships for us that had a positive impact on our timeline.

NOTE: The 2020 GEP is open until October 18. Apply here!