This Canadian company is figuring out where to electric chargers

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Neil Cawse’s mother once said to him that while he may be the “smart one” among his three siblings, the other brothers were likely to make more money than him.

It was a statement that “somehow stuck” in his head and played a role in helping him build an Oakville, Ont.-based data analytics company that he says is set to earn about $1 billion in revenue this year.

Cawse is the founder and chief executive of Geotab Inc., which analyzes data extracted from thousands of fleets of vehicles in order to allow businesses to optimize them.

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“We have a little device that you plug into a port in your vehicle,” he said. “That device connects the engine’s computers to our service on the internet and we take all the data about the behaviour of your vehicle. Where the vehicle is, failures of systems, are the engine lights on, fuel consumption, electricity consumption; we understand exactly what you are doing.”

The information is then analyzed using artificial intelligence and the resulting insights help companies run their vehicular fleets in a more efficient way, Cawse said.

The company has around 50,000 customers, including government organizations such as the City of Toronto, Natural Resources of Canada and the Delaware Department of Transportation, in 160 countries, and it processes data from more than four million vehicles.

The company also utilizes the data to provide crucial information about vehicular trends.

For example, an analysis in June showed that travel times on Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, which handles about 140,000 vehicles each day, increased by 250 per cent in the morning and 230 per cent in the afternoon due to repair work that began on March 25.

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Commercial drivers were spending 80 per cent more time per day driving on the Gardiner and the amount of traffic travelling less than 25 kilometres per hour had doubled. In addition, carbon emissions had increased 23 per cent due to the extra driving time, according to the analysis.

“Because we have such a large scale, the quality of data that we collect and the volume of data and the analytics that we can do on that data is just world class,” Cawse said.

With an increasing number of electric vehicles being sold in the market, the company has been looking to provide data locations that require EV chargers, battery usage and the kind of EV vehicle required by businesses for specific routes and uses.

The company has even partnered with China’s BYD Co. Ltd., the world’s largest EV maker, to equip its electric trucks sold in Europe with Geotab’s hardware to capture comprehensive vehicle data.

Cawse said the Western world has an issue with the data collected onboard BYD vehicles potentially ending up in the hands of the Chinese government. Under the deal, BYD vehicles sold in Europe, Latin America or North America will have their Chinese telematics removed and BYD will install Geotab’s telematics.

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Telematics is a method of monitoring vehicles using global positioning system (GPS) technology and on-board diagnostics (OBD) to plot movements on a computerized map.

Business has been booming for the private company, which doesn’t have any outside shareholders, and Cawse expects 17 per cent growth this year.

In comparison, California-based Samsara Inc., a company that Cawse refers to as a competitor, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and earned about US$1.1 billion for its fiscal year ending Feb. 23, 2024, a 39 per cent increase from the previous year.

As of Tuesday, Samsara had a market cap of around US$26.5 billion and its share price has increased from US$22.3 in December 2021 to US$47.55.

Cawse is open to the idea of taking Geotab public, but it isn’t on the cards at the moment.

One thing he isn’t keen on, however, is selling the company, which many Canadian entrepreneurs have done in the past for one reason or another.

Royal Bank of Canada chief executive Dave McKay told a conference last week that Canada’s tax system compels entrepreneurs to sell early to Americans, who end up getting “amazing intellectual property for free.” He said Canada needs a competitive tax system that rewards risk-takers and encourages companies to grow.

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Cawse, who immigrated to Canada from South Africa in 2000 and started Geotab with his family in his home’s basement, said he has big ambitions and wants to take advantage of Ontario’s skilled labour force.

“I understand people who can make a few extra dollars and move to the U.S. and reduce their taxes,” he said. “We see things differently. We don’t want to sell. Things are working brilliantly. We want to continue to grow and stake the Canadian flag throughout the world.”

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com

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