Features
22 aoû 19

Edwin Colella, Omoove: " Looking for innovative technological ideas"

According to Edwin Colella, VP Sales and Marketing, Omoove and sponsor of the Smart Mobility Start-up of the Year, the innovative value of the applicants is more important than the maturity of their solutions. "We're looking for possible synergies and investments."

Why is disruption in today’s fleet and mobility ecosystem necessary and what is the benefit?

Amongst many trends that are changing the mobility sector there are some that have a significant impact on fleet managers, such as shared mobility, the transition towards electric powertrains, assisted driving support versus the autonomous driving model. However, the progressive replacement of the entire fleet with factory fitted vehicles is more relevant. The peculiarity of this change is that the need arises to integrate data coming from technological solutions, each different from the other and tailor-made for each manufacturer. Surely this last element is the most important and impactful for fleet managers. However, following this historic change, opportunities will open up for dozens of services that can be offered to fleet managers and drivers.

Considering the set of these available services, I believe that the most important and imaginable benefits for fleet managers are: preventive diagnostics; intelligent management of accidents, assessment of damage and subsequent emergency services dispatch; the ability to enable vehicle and route sharing models. Finally, advantages deriving from the use of insurance policies based on telematics will be increasingly consolidated. The combination of these benefits will certainly have a substantial impact on mobility management costs for fleet managers.

Do you feel there is enough disruption in the fleet and mobility industry in Europe?

Technological innovation and business models in mobility sectors are making progress like never before all over Europe, North America and Asia. Several leading companies around the world stand for innovation and disruptive business models as proof of this phenomenon. In this context, companies such as Drivy in Europe, Turo in the United States and Didi in China represent 3 examples of excellence in global business models.

How does Omoove deal with start-ups and disruption in the mobility scene?

Omoove and Octo share an open approach to innovation that involves start-ups and partners within their own service ecosystem. The recent acquisition of Nebula technology, a leading company in intelligent vehicle diagnostics for any brand, the integration of Safo, a fines management sector leader, and of Filo, a start-up with a vertical competence in Bluetooth connectivity, are 3 examples of skills and technologies integration within the solutions for fleet managers to which are added integrations with Excellences such Salesforce and Zuora. This is the model that allows our solutions to give fleet managers an all round answer to their needs.

What is your message to start-up companies that might be willing to participate in the Award, but think they are too small or too young?

We are interested in sharing new technological innovative ideas and ways of doing business with young entrepreneurs regardless of the maturity of their solutions, in order to evaluate together possible synergies and investments.

What are you looking forward to or what do you hope to see in terms of focus elements with the candidates of the Start-up Award this year?

Amongst the innovations we consider most impactful for the sector, we hope to see young entrepreneurs’ initiatives involving innovative technologies for unlocking and locking the vehicle, machine learning algorithms feeding on predictive models for vehicle use and maintenance, dynamic pricing models that bring significant economic benefits to fleet managers and shared mobility operators.

You can be the 2019 Smart Mobility Start-up of the Year. Apply now!

Image: Edwin Colella, VP Sales and Marketing, Omoove

Authored by: Benjamin Uyttebroeck