The SME investment specialist Seneca Partners announced that Manchester-based Wejo has just finished a reverse merger with Virtuoso Acquisition Corporation. Trading has already for the expanded company begun on NASDAQ last Friday, November 19.
Wejo is known as one of the leading names in connected vehicle data but it is not resting on its laurels. The company knows that it has tremendous growth potential and it is doing what it takes to accelerate expansion to various markets. Among its targets are advertising, insurance, payments, traffic management, fleet management, remote diagnostics, SaaS solutions, roadside assistance, car sharing, and car rentals.
Automotive Big Data
According to company statistics, Wejo is now collecting an average of 14.6 billion data points each day. It is also analyzing 66 million journeys of about 10.7 million active vehicles daily. Its supply base is more than 50 million connected vehicles and continuing to increase at a rapid rate. Indeed, Wejo predicts that almost half of the vehicles around the world will become connected by the decade's end. The volume of data will skyrocket, thus the need for the company to get ready for take-off.
Investment Partners
Seneca Partners has been supporting Wejo's growth since 2016 and is pleased with the result of the merger. One of their investment directors Matt Curie says that Wejo has had a strong management team since the beginning. This has definitely helped the company navigate a dynamic business environment over the past few years. Curie reiterates that Seneca remains committed to the development of businesses within the North West SME community. They have a strong relationship and wide footprint that they will continue to nurture.
Curie also lauded the UK government's pro-business programs that help innovative startups raise capital to grow and become competitive. In this case, Wejo was able to take advantage of the Enterprise Investment Scheme. EIS gives investors tax relief as incentive so that more would be willing to purchase the shares of beneficiary companies.
Seneca is not just focused on raising funds and deploying these. They have the proven ability to select the best investment opportunities among multiple options. They are also able to get cash returns within reasonable timeframes. The case of Wejo is another proof of their expertise in finding excellent startups and guiding their growth. It will further strengthen the trust of investors and advisers.
Richard Barlow is the founder and CEO of Wejo. According to him, they chose Virtuoso for the Wejo reverse merger as their team is onboard with their vision to transform connected vehicle data into useful data. Wejo is proud to set the market standard in this sector for collection and aggregation. Barlow sees the insights extracted from their data as vital in creating a smarter, cleaner, and safer environment for vehicles.
Leadership Chat: Wejo CEO Richard Barlow