Leveraging the power of IoT, Cyrrup is on a mission to make vehicles smarter and safer

The Hyderabad-based startup offers an IoT based device that helps in analysing driver behaviour and vehicle tracking. Focusing on commercial vehicle safety, the company aims to reduce the number of accidents on Indian roads.

Indian roads witnessed 55 road accidents and 17 deaths every hour in 2016, according to the latest report by the road transport and highways ministry.

This data only shows what everyone knows - Indian roads are among the deadliest in the world. The report also shows there was a 3.3 percent increase in the number of people killed in road accidents in 2016 from 2015.

Cyrrup Solutions wants to transform this scenario with cutting-edge technologies.

The company, launched in July 2016, offers a device to make drivers more responsible, and roads much safer. This compact and lightweight device can also be customised for use in specific non-emergency situations.

The black box has so far only been associated with aircraft to help extract information and provide evidence about accidents, but Cyrrup Solutions intends to bring the same efficiency for vehicle tracking and safety for commercial fleet vehicles.

With a strong focus to disrupt the telematics sector, the startup offers Internet of Things (IoT) based device supported by back-end computer algorithms – Vehicle Black Box.

“The intended consumers of this solution would belong to the section of vehicle owners, vendors, vehicle owners, insurance companies and banks. The untapped market in this domain is huge and the change in perspective of the consumers to adopt these solutions, is a big boon to the industry at this level,” said Gaurav Kumar, Founder and CEO of Cyrrup.

Cyrrup Solutions is the brainchild of Gaurav, an IIT alumnus, and Aswini Nunna Rao, a former IT engineer. Prior to Cyrrup, Gaurav worked in software development in the mobile domain and was involved in the launch of the first 3G handsets in EU, and has worked with Samsung, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Intel. Aswini, on the other hand, worked as a digital marketer at Regalix for Google AdWords US clients and as a solution consultant for pre-sales at TIBCO software.

Gaurav also roped in Swadhin Sonowal, his IIT batchmate, when starting Cyrrup. Swadhin brought significant software development experience in multiple domains including telecommunication, fintech, and edutech, among others.

How Cyrrup devices make vehicles smarter?

Vehicle Black Box: The IoT device claims to be the ultimate vehicle management system by monitoring the overall performance of the vehicle and analysis of driver behavior. Device manufacturing and software development are carried out in-house, and the device can provide vehicle status, monitor its health, and fuel level, while providing safety and security of the vehicle and its occupants.

Installed on the dashboard of a vehicle, be it a taxi or a truck, the device works in a similar fashion as a flight black box, and is equipped with 14 smart features like breath analyser, live GPS tracking, GSM module, and vehicle immobiliser, among others. The breath analyser prohibits a driver from driving if alcohol consumed by the driver is higher than permitted. The device’s in-build GSM module supports Push to Call and Panic button for emergencies.

Cyrrup says any vehicle owner or cab-servicing company like Uber, Ola, and Zoomcar, or fleet management, cargo, delivery management, and transportation management company that operates buses and trucks can use the device to assist in understanding driver behavior and vehicle health.

“Our one-of-its-kind visual analytics-based solution detects driver drowsiness, driver distraction, and lane violation while the vehicle is on the move. This detection is done real time and a loud sound is played, which brings the driver to full alert. This goes long way in preventing accidents,” says Gaurav.

The device has two cameras that give live footage of the road and the interior of the vehicle. This helps in insurance claims, and safeguard the vehicle and passengers.

The software collects and analyses sensor data, which is stored in the cloud and the customer is provided with an app and web dashboard for a detailed account of his fleet.

TrakCop and Smart Fleet Management are two digital solutions offered by the company, claimed to be subsets of the primary offering, Vehicle Black Box.

Smart Fleet Management: The digital solution helps fleet owners keep track of the vehicle, protect it from theft, locate drivers, and analyse driving behaviour. All records and reports are updated to the cloud using the dashboard of the web or mobile app. It helps in tracking all types of vehicles and updates owners of the route taken by drivers and driving speeds.

The TrakCop app works with dynamic vehicle tracking, helping people know about frequently-used transportation services like cabs or buses. It sends timely alerts and notifications about the vehicle location, time to reach and live movement tracking on maps.

Decoding opportunities in the telematics sector

As per a Roland Berger report ‘Telematics in India: Trends & Opportunities’, major players in the domain like Trimble, Arya Omnitalk and CMC technologies account for 60 percent of the total market share of the Indian market. The report highlights that while smaller players make up 17 percent of the market share, OEMs like Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra account for another 9 percent.

However, the total telematics-installed base in the Indian commercial vehicle market is a mere 3 lakh units, the research showed, offering a big opportunity.

The main challenges for the industry at present are high-pricing and non-customisable products.

Cyrrup aims to offer solutions that allow extensive customisation. Developing a host of features in-house helps the company have an edge in providing reliable support. Talking about price points, the company highlights that the costs vary depending upon the benefits offered and features sought by the customer. The standard range is between Rs 3,000 and Rs 15,000 per vehicle.

“Our attempt is to reduce the solution costs for premium, or, niche requirements in the market; so as to make easy entry into the segments. We are not attempting to solve already-addressed common issues like GPS tracking, but our focus is to tag additional features on top of these basic features,” adds Aswini.

The bootstrapped startup has an eight-member team, and is looking to raise funds. Based on a one-time delivery model, the company plans to monetise through yearly subscriptions. Currently, it is at a stage of doing pilots, and has gained traction from two big players in the truck fleet industry and four educational institutes.

The company is planning to start a pilot project with only one sub-segment of commercial vehicles – trucks, including fleet owners as well as vendors starting this month and is planning to convert these pilots into sales by end of November.

“Our next customers are school buses and mining vehicles, in addition to trucks. Our solutions are designed to monitor real time behaviour and live tracking of vehicles and the passengers. This addresses the safety concerns to a great extent,” adds Gaurav.