As eBikes become more affordable, people more than ever prefer motorized bicycles to other modes of transportation. They are everywhere and they are the world’s best-selling electric vehicle. Bike sales are outpacing all-electric car sales by 8x with no signs of slowing. The pandemic bike boom boosted e-bike sales 145% from 2019 to 2020, more than 2x of classic bikes. Deloitte projected that between 2020 and 2023, 130 million e-bikes would be sold worldwide.

However, cycling is still the most dangerous mode of transportation per mile. Injuries stemming from the use of motorized modes of transportation spiked 70% over the past 4 years, spurring nearly 200,000 emergency room visits, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Here at LDV Capital, we invest in people building businesses powered by visual technologies. We thrive on collaborating with deep tech teams leveraging computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to analyze visual data. We are the only venture capital firm with this thesis since 2012. 

We are thrilled to partner and invest in the Roadio team – a deep technical team that is building a computer vision-based e-bike collision warning system. The news was covered in Techcrunch, “Streetlogic launches computer vision-based e-bike collision warning system, raises $2.1M”

 They use two fisheye cameras, a powerful processing unit, and advanced AI to detect and notify bikers of threats in real-time. Their 360° camera system works seamlessly with a smartphone app via bluetooth to send simple audio and visual alerts so riders keep eyes on the road. The Roadio AI is trained to predict forward collisions, side collisions, and rear collisions to enhance real-time safety. The app will also have a passive “scanning” mode to alert for side and front collision warnings, as well as rear approach warnings. It’s also able to record incidents just like a dual facing dash camera.

Roadio is being developed by an all-star team who built the Rylo 360° camera and AI systems for Uber and Cruise. They are avid e-Bike enthusiasts themselves and they are on a mission to make roads safer. ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) is already ubiquitous with cars and motorcycles and Roadio is the first to deliver a light-weight, low-power ADAS for eBike riders.

 The company’s founder and CEO – Jonathan Denby is a Stanford University Graduate (BA in Product Design and MA in Mechanical Engineering), a Former iPhone Product Designer and a former Head of Hardware at Rylo – the world's first 360° action sports camera. Prior to founding Roadio, Jonathan advised Uber's NeMo (JUMP) Robotics group through the development of computer vision systems for JUMP scooters.

The company has just announced its $2.1M pre-seed raise from LDV Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, and strategic angel investors – one of whom is Luc Vincent, former Executive VP of Autonomous Driving at Lyft and Expert in Residence with us at LDV. 

“EBiking can be extremely dangerous and we believe visual technologies can make ebiking exponentially safer. We are thrilled to partner with the deep technical Roadio team to deploy their computer vision camera platform to significantly improve safety for eBike riders around the world, says Evan Nisselson, General Partner at LDV Capital. “We look forward to helping Roadio leverage our domain expertise and expert network as the only venture fund with a thesis of investing in people building businesses powered by visual technologies.”