Company Overview
Carvoyant started mid 2011 as the proverbial ‘back of the napkin’ concept out of a response to our founder’s wife requesting help in clearing out the ‘check engine light’on her car. Since that time the company successfully went through a business accelerator program, proofed out our technology and launched our beta service.
Carvoyant uniquely addresses three critical problems. First, consumers often do not trust auto mechanics and believe they overpay for repair service. Second, repair shops use inefficient methods to attract new clients. Finally, there is no single macro-market data set for the auto industry to make performance related decisions or have early awareness of mechanical issues with car makes and models.
Carvoyant becomes a trusted source for consumers by helping them find repair shops at prices they can trust, before it becomes a critical repair. As a two-sided platform Carvoyant connects consumers to repair shops at the very moment the work needs to be done. This connection shifts advertising spending from a “demographic guess” to “pay for performance” customer acquisition. The data from this transaction is currently lost in the marketplace; our system captures it allowing deeper insight to automotive service and consumer behavior.
While the connected car and telematics is a growing aspect of the auto industry, Carvoyant is positioning itself in the middle of this communication pipeline. Rather than displace existing communication channels which all operate in silos, Carvoyant will be helping the various parties communicate better with more relevant data. In essence, Carvoyant will give consumers the tools to manage their own automotive vendor relationships. Through a simple device plugged into the vehicle Carvoyant can begin changing the way consumers and the auto repair industry communicate.
Our Product
Carvoyant provides a car service monitoring product via a simple device that plugs into the On Board Diagnostic (OBD) System of a car. When a service need is triggered by the OBD system (check engine light or service maintenance light turns on) the OBD device notifies Carvoyant’s cloud-based servers via a cellular connection. Local repair shops or car dealer repair centers in our network are notified of the new service opportunity via email and wireless notifications and reach out to the consumer to aid in troubleshooting and scheduling an appointment to repair the vehicle. Carvoyant charges repair shops a flat per user fee to be connected to a consumer. This platform allows repair professionals the opportunity to be the first at the consumer’s doorstep to repair the car.
In addition, a cloud-based automotive record maintenance solution is provided to consumers that will assist with intelligent diagnosis of problems, automate maintenance records and provide proactive service discounts for active users. Maintenance data is collected from both the OBD device and from service records. This data set enables early detection of new car model defects, consumer behavior patterns, and other valuable marketing data that is relevant to manufacturers, warranty providers, insurance companies and other industry stakeholders.
Our Opportunity
Carvoyant creates “health records” for all cars and provides the deepest insight on cars with OBD ports – most 1996 and newer vehicles, and all from the 2000 model year onward are OBD2-compliant. With over 10% of the cars on the road driving around with the ‘check engine’ light illuminated in any month, there are many drivers who would like to know why the light is illuminated.
Long term, the data set developed as a byproduct of Carvoyant’s system will drive large market data revenues from automakers, insurance companies, and other industry stakeholders.
Moreover, Carvoyant will become the pipeline for automotive data to be shared with application developers everywhere. We provide the data while more innovative developers create an app to roll down your windows, report tire pressure or communicate with your house to open your garage door as the car approaches. All these concepts can be created, but a convergent framework is needed to support these applications across car maker and technology platforms. That’s where Carvoyant will be heading.
