Vehicle AI data company Otonomo CEO says privacy is top priority

Ben Volkow, CEO Otonomo, joins Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous to discuss how AI and vehicle data help vehicle logistics fleets.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Welcome back to "Yahoo Finance Live." The data automotive startup, Otonomo, is going public on the NASDAQ in the second quarter. The Israeli-based startup is doing it via a SPAC, merging with the Blank Check Company Software Acquisition Group. The deal gives Otonomo a valuation of $1.4 billion. Joining me now is the co-founder and CEO of Otonomo, Ben Volkow. Ben, so good to have you here. For those who are not familiar with your company, it's a cloud-based platform. Tell us how you are using data to assist drivers and others in the auto industry.

BEN VOLKOW: So hi, Alexis, thank you for having me today, a real pleasure. So Otonomo really is a data platform that aims at OEMs, the common [INAUDIBLE] to build a value around collected car data. Almost every new car today comes out of the dealership connected with a small modem and a tiny SIM. And all those car data, all those cars are creating huge amounts of data.

And what we do at Otonomo, we really help the OEMs to build value around this car data. To share it with different services, emergency services, smart cities, parking services, insurance services, different services that really enable you to build almost a smartphone experience around a vehicle.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Talk to me a little bit about real world applications of your technology. How will automotive data help drivers in the future? I know that with the winter storms in parts of the country, your services are actually able to help fleets navigate through all the logistics and stay safe.

BEN VOLKOW: Definitely. So some cars today are sending us even 150 parameters. So it could be the weather, what's the temperature outside. It could be what's the barometric pressure outside. It could be [INAUDIBLE] notification, even the aid is coming. From mobile, there are others are sending us the data. So we get notification on snow on the road, on boxes, or hazards on the road. And all this information is being collected by the vehicles sent to us.

And we distribute it. This could be transportation agencies. It could be smart cities. It could be fleet management. So a lot of data that is being gathered in real time from tens of millions of driving cars. And as you said rightly, one of the most important use cases is to use this data in order to reduce risk and drive safely, especially around harsh weather conditions.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, there is a lot of controversy around companies collecting data. That's sort of the backbone of your company. Can you talk to us about how you're keeping that data private. And are you, is it anonymous data? Are you are you able to map the data to the person giving you the data or the person from which you're collecting the data?

BEN VOLKOW: Definitely. So we work with car manufacturers and car manufacturers are as traditional as possible. There are no risks, there are no bending corners, and privacy is the number one priority. At the end of the day, I'm also a driver. So I want to be treated the same way I treat others. Always the default, by the way, for data, is [INAUDIBLE]. Nobody is taking or sharing any data.

And we provide, part of our platform is really to [INAUDIBLE] is to enable the OEMs to comply to different privacy regulations such as the GDPR or CCPA or others. There's another entire layer of automotive-related privacy regulations. So privacy is top priority. Nobody is collecting data without approval. And the data that we collect is anonymized. Not all the use cases anonymized. When it's a, when we have the approval for anonymized data, it's anonymized. When it's not anonymized, of course, we erase the data.

It could be a safety service that in case of an accident notifies the emergency room in real time. Saves life, it's a good service. It's personal. You approve to collect the data and after we trust the data we, we erase it. It could be a personal parking service that tells you where on the curbside there's parking. You know that people are spending 30% of their time in open areas looking for parking. So yeah, it's personal, we know what is your car, but there's very clear value. And of course, after we deliver the data, it's being erased. So privacy--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Before we let you go, I know that Wall Street is very hot on SPACs right now, and that's the way you're choosing to bring your company public. Give us an idea of some of the automakers you have deals with. I know you have deals with Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes Benz. And also, what do you plan to do with the proceeds raised from the sale, the stock sale?

BEN VOLKOW: Definitely. So we have today six OEM agreements. And if you know a bit about the auto industry, you know that each one of those takes about three years. So it's something we are very very proud of. And we could share, as you said, Daimler and the BMW and Mitsubishi and Fiat Chrysler. Now maybe I should say [INAUDIBLE], Peugeot Citreon, and other OEMs.

The reason that we went SPAC was that really it enabled us to get a boost of funding in order to take the leadership position we have in the market and concrete it also now when the market is growing very rapidly. The plan is to be more aggressive on the product and move faster with the sales, looking to additional geographies. We have a lot of plans for this additional funding. And very, very exciting about going public in a couple of weeks.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, we're looking forward to it. Ben Volkow, CEO of Otonomo. We look forward to having you back on SPAC day. Thank you.