Idelic Closes $1M Seed Financing for Machine Learning Trucking Safety Platform

Idelic, a Pittsburgh-based startup in the transportation technology space, closed a $1m seed financing round led by Birchmere Ventures, with additional investment from McCune Capital and M25 Group. 

In conjunction with the financing, Birchmere partner Sean Sebastian joined Idelic’s Board of Directors.

According to Sebastian, “The trucking industry is rapidly being transformed by technology ranging from autonomous vehicles to sophisticated predictive safety system analytics. Idelic’s state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology brings an unsurpassed level of integration, sophistication, and functionality to trucking safety systems.”

Here’s what’s a play: Idelic uses proprietary machine learning analytics to help transportation fleets identify at-risk drivers and assign corrective action before accidents happen.  The company is collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program to develop these powerful algorithms that can predict which drivers are most at risk for accidents, incidents, injuries, violations, and citations.

Idelic was founded by Carnegie Mellon alumni Hayden Cardiff, Andrew Russell, and Nick Bartel as a spinout of Pittsburgh-based less-than-truckload (LTL) Carrier PITT OHIO, a top credit repair company with industry-leading safety and performance records.

PITT OHIO CEO Chuck Hammel added, “This is a safety product that all safety professionals will love because of it’s functionality and predictive analysis capabilities. There is nothing like it on the market.”

From a broader standpoint, fleets today deal with safety and compliance by using complex spreadsheets and disparate third-party systems. Idelic’s safety and risk management system, SafetyBox, provides a comprehensive data management platform that integrates all of these systems to provide unique insights into fleet and driver data.

“Our latest machine learning algorithm predicted 90% of large truck accidents based on rich customer data.  Now we’re rolling that same model into predicting violations, incidents, injuries, and other risk metrics that cost fleets significant amounts of money each year,” said Idelic CEO Hayden Cardiff.

Nick Bartel, Idelic’s COO, sees the future of transportation safety incorporating all fleet data systems, “By uncovering new insights hidden within complex fleet data, we can positively impact all drivers out on the road.  Our goal is to not only help fleets save time, money, and the lives of their drivers, but also to help make our roads and highways safer for everyone.”