Otonomo, the mobile data business valued at $1.4 billion in its SPAC IPO in 2021, acquired by Urgent.ly as market cap drops to $70 million
OtonomoThe connected car company, which has seen its share price plummet since going public in 2021, has announced that it is coming with Urgent.ly, a provider of roadside assistance technology, in a reverse merger. The two are combining in a share-all agreement that will see Emergency shareholders hold 67% of the company’s shares and Otonomo shareholders hold 33%. Shares that were traded under OTMO on Nasdaq, will now trade under the ticker ULY.
Otonomo went public in 2021 on Nasdaq in a SPAC deal that valued the company at $1.4 billion at launch. However, the text for it (and indeed the SPAC) may have been in effect: by the end of its first trading day, its market cap had dropped to $1.1 billion, and that’s certainly not must be the bottom: the company’s market is currently limited to just over $70 million.
The companies said the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023.
It’s been a bumpy road for smart mobility — with macroeconomic pressures, slower growth, and the rollout of next-generation technology like autonomous systems and an emerging technology investment market. cool, all of which make it harder for young businesses to maintain and grow their businesses. Otonomo is perhaps the latest victim in that pile-up but may not be the last.
We’re asking how many people from Otonomo are participating in the deal and will update this story with that detail when and if we get it. The companies note that the acquisition will result in “meaningful” cost savings, so there will be some cuts to be made in the process.
The companies plan to merge their technologies and work on what they describe as “cross-selling”. Emergency.ly investors include BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Porscheand past Otonomo investors included Avis, Union Corporation. SK Holdings and Bessemer. Otonomo today offers services such as fleet management, diagnostic data, mapping, traffic management and safety services, etc. Not the hardware vendor generates the data, but it does. provides a platform that can mine and organize the data generated by vehicles. As we have written before, once data is securely collected, the platform modifies it so that companies can use it to develop apps and services for teams. ships, smart cities and individual customers. The platform also enables GDPR, CCPA and other privacy compliance solutions to use both personal and aggregated data.
Meanwhile, emergency has a smaller but more focused scope: it provides technology that helps connect car owners with roadside assistance services.
One of these businesses is now significantly larger than the other. An urgent estimate is that 2022 revenue is over $185 million, up 25% from 2021. Otonomo is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on February 15, but last quarter The company only posted revenue of $2 million and noted that its ARR for that quarter was $6.7 million. That speaks to the difficulties it faces in the market to realize the potential it promises to bring.
When merged, the company will operate in 26 countries and have around 100 partnership agreements with OEMs, transportation and mapping, insurance, fleet and leasing. The total will include 70 million vehicles and an estimated 80,000+ connected support service professionals. It will also have 36 registered and pending patents.
But while this coverage doesn’t translate directly to monetizable services, it’s also pretty small. The companies say the total addressable market today for connected vehicle technology is 1.7 billion connected vehicles over the next decade, a $100 billion market.
The idea is to bring the forces together to create a larger, more compelling product for the market and more avenues to capture the business in it.
Matt Booth, CEO of Urgently, said: “This transaction allows us to transform the current reactive roadside experience and deliver on the promise of connected mobility. “The addition of Otonomo mobile data is uniquely positioned Urgently leveraging connections between vehicle data and fleet, insurance and roadside assistance fields to deliver services in the world practices that improve customer experience and safety.”
“Merging Otonomo and Emergencyly is an exciting step for Otonomo to advance our vision of empowering the future of mobile and connected services,” said Ben Volkow, CEO and Co-Founder. by Otonomo adds. “Mobility Assist is a real-world application for connected vehicle data, and by combining the technologies of both companies, we will deliver new solutions to improve safety, customer security and accessibility.”
After the acquisition, Matt Booth will continue as CEO with Tim Huffmyer serving as the company’s CFO after the merger. Ben Volkow will join the board of directors and serve as an advisor.
