Interview with Daniel Vassallucci, CEO
Automotive-Business, May 2022, pages 30-31
Founded about fifteen years ago, Optimum Automotive — also known under the Mapping Control brand — is what Daniel Vassallucci, its founder and president, describes as an “old start-up”. “We were a very small boat with four oars and we transformed ourselves until we became a sailboat,” he likes to say, using the marine metaphor.
Based in Aix-en-Provence, about thirty kilometers from the Mediterranean, the company remains modest compared to the mastodons represented by the major rental companies or maintenance players. However, this modest player in the connected vehicle and fleet management market is present in 35 countries in Europe, Africa and South America. Its annual growth reached around 25%, a pace that was little disturbed by the Covid crisis. It even allowed the entire team to move forward on numerous projects and the management to complete a 14 million euros fundraising campaign, from Paris Fonds Vert (managed by Demeter), Amundi and historical investors, including Région Sud Invest, an investment fund in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.
This capital is necessary to continue the development of Optimum Automotive's activities, in particular in the processing and analysis of data collected on connected vehicles. The objective is to offer its fleet management customers ever more advanced services, to manage fleet management more finely, particularly in this context of energy transition.
The data obsession
“Data is the commodity. It is something fundamental. Everything comes from what is aggregated”, summarizes Daniel Vassallucci. This major shift towards data was taken by Optimum Automotive in 2015-2016 and gave birth to a” Data hub ”, a kind of data aggregator. This platform makes it possible to provide a wide range of services and solutions adapted to the needs of client companies or administrations.
“Customers are keen on this feedback: it allows them to make decisions on a daily basis”, underlines the CEO. The data used is of course linked to the vehicles: actual mileage, fuel or electricity consumption, battery charge level, alerts techniques (lights on the dashboard). But also, concerning drivers, driving behavior — accelerations, braking, engine speed, etc.
“Collecting data for a customer is not just analyzing flows and reporting them. It is also and above all starting change”, insists Daniel Vassallucci.
Of course, the contractual and financial data of vehicles are also processed: contracts related to the vehicle, insurance, maintenance. “Behind all this there are financial flows, including the possible optimization of certain expenditure items,” he explains. Optimum Automotive is thus able to connect to numerous suppliers to “fetch flows”, i.e. verify that the services billed to a customer are invoiced correctly, and at the expected rate.
To optimize fleets
Daniel Vassallucci is aware of this: “managers currently have to deal with very diverse uses from employees”. This analysis and consulting mission, conducted under the Optimum Automotive banner, is based above all on data.
“Before switching from thermal to electric, you need to be able to demonstrate the value of it. We therefore propose to audit and map the fleet for three months before issuing our recommendations,” he explains.
The group relies heavily on its database — including manufacturer catalogs or Jato Dynamics references — to help companies succeed in their energy transition. The support is extended to indicate “the best associated charging equipment: which station, at what location and at what price”.
With the multiplication of connected vehicles on the market, Optimum Automotive intends to put its expertise at the service of more players, who will also be able to benefit from the data collected.
“Data makes it possible to sell better, to sell more. You need to know how to monetize information but also to ensure the reliability of the collection before making it available. And Optimum Automotive knows how to do that,” concludes Daniel Vassallucci.
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