Nearly 1.5 lakh people die on Indian roads every year due to road accidents caused mostly by drivers, giving those working in the fleet safety space a total addressable market of $50 billion worldwide, according to Netradyne co-founder Avneesh Agrawal. The vision-based fleet safety service provider Netradyne is bullish on this market and expects to grow 50% in the next year by pushing its products globally. Agrawal sat down with DH’s Anjali Jain to elaborate on the opportunities in India’s road safety market.
What has been the impact of your driver safety platform till now?
There has been a 50% reduction in accidents, which improves safety and reduces the cost of damages and accidents. Studies show that more than 94% of accidents are due to driver related reasons, which means that coaching the driver to provide feedback is important.
In the US across fleets, we have data that shows a reduction in distracted driving due to talking on the phone, which is the biggest reason for accidents right now, has gone down by 85-90%. In India, we have one fleet called Writer Safeguard which is a large, cash management company. They've deployed more than a thousand vehicles and seen a 50% reduction in accidents and 75% reduction in distracted driving.
What is your global presence right now and how do you plan to expand?
We have operations in both the US and India. A large part of our R&D is done out of India and the US is the biggest source of our customer base. We have also launched in Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But all of manufacturing and designing is done out of India. In the US we have a very strong research group that works with the research wing in India.
We are going on rapid global expansion as a business strategy. We're going to launch in Mexico, Germany, and the Netherlands by the end of the year. There are a lot of companies who have global presence and would love to have a common provider and common safety paradigm across the entire customer base. That's one big motivation for us to go global.
What are your targets for revenue growth?
We clocked Rs 600 crore in revenue last year. This year we should be growing 50% and are aiming to complete Rs 1,000 crore of revenue. If you look at historical growth rates, we've grown at least 50-60% year-on-year. I see no reason why that should slow down over the next few years. Our manufacturing output should also increase at a similar rate.
The US is the largest revenue generator, followed by India. Covid was a slightly difficult time as the logistics Industry was in a tough spot in India, but post-Covid, the business in India has taken off. It's a very, very high growth rate. India is going to become a big business for us.
What are some challenges and opportunities you have noticed in terms of finding clients in India?
In India, unfortunately, safety is still an afterthought. Now there's a very strong push from the government, which is fantastic. And it's creating this awareness that safety is important. But we are far from where the US is on being safety conscious. And safety is actually important for the bottom line. It's not only from a societal standpoint but also economically because your assets are protected.