Green Road Raised Almost $20m — Where’s Pointer Telocation?

A couple of months back, a jewel in the Israeli cleantech crown raised some additional funds (some even coming from Sir Richard Branson). GreenRoad Technologies, with development in Or Yehuda, employs a in-vehicle device that improves driver safety and betters fuel consumption for car fleets. Read Cleantech-Israel’s review of the deal as well.

I’m reading the article and it looks great. GreenRoad’s Safety Center, the firm’s flagship product, seems to be getting traction with fleet operators and insurance firms, looking to decrease accidents and improve efficiencies. While GreenRoad is doing wonderful things for Israeli Cleantech and kudos to them, I’m struck with that fact that Pointer Telocation [[pntr]], whose Chairman, investor Yossi Ben Shalom, we interviewed a few months ago, is not a player in this space.

Pointer has an interesting business. While providing road-side services in Israel and abroad, Pointer provides a lot of location-based services for the auto industry. Via RF-systems, the firm can locate autos. Via cellular units, the company has essentially combined GPS and GPRS systems with embedded software together in on box. They also have an impressive command and control system that allows for fleet management and stolen vehicle recovery (SVR).

With a install base and global sales, why isn’t Pointer forging ahead beyond SVR and into more value-added service like GreenRoad is providing? Maybe a partnership is in order?

Disclaimer: Author’s fund holds a position in PNTR as of 7/27/2008.

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