Enterprise: Compass IoT
USP: In just a few years since launch, this data company that provides insights gleaned from connected vehicles has gained traction in the public and private sectors and won multiple awards.
Emily Bobis and Angus McDonald launched Compass IoT in 2018 while they were both still studying at the University of Sydney. “At its core, Compass is a data company,” Emily explains. “We use data insights from connected vehicles to help transport professionals build better, safer and more resilient cities.”
In the few years since they founded the businesses, Compass has been involved in a number of high-profile projects. “Transurban used our Safepoint data to halve crashes on one of Sydney’s busiest roads,” Emily enthuses. “A government organisation used our Brakepoint data to justify a $73 million bridge-widening project, and another government organisation used our newest tool – Pavepoint – to measure the level of road damage caused by the Lismore floods, to help prioritise maintenance and repair.”
Despite being young entrepreneurs, Emily and Angus already have plenty of experience behind them, having worked in tech-enabled mobility businesses for over five years. They first worked together at Angus’s first start-up, Airbike – the only Australian-owned-and-operated bike-sharing start-up at the time. “We secured a contract with TCCS [Transport Canberra & City Services Directorate] to be the sole legal bike-share operator in Canberra,” Emily says. “Through that process, we found there to be a large gap in mobility data and a lot of uncertainty about how people actually used the road networks vs the way they were designed. Once we sold Airbike, we decided to focus on that problem and landed on the idea of using connected vehicle data to address it.”
“We have uptake from most Australian state governments.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was actually a benefit to Compass IoT, with lockdowns and mobility restrictions causing huge disruptions to road and transport networks, and many private and public organisations having no method of quantitatively capturing these changes quickly and at scale. It provided an opportunity for Emily and Angus to demonstrate the value that connected vehicle data had in passively measuring behaviour changes. “We were also very lucky to qualify for JobKeeper and could pivot the team entirely online and work flexibly without much impact on output,” Emily explains. “The sustained success we’ve achieved so far really is a testament to the team’s skills and ability to execute.”
The reception for their products has exceeded Emily and Angus’s expectations, and they consider themselves fortunate to have customers who are “incredibly motivated” to pursue innovative solutions to complex problems and trial emerging technology. Compass IoT was one of 11 global companies awarded a Google Cloud Customer Award in the cross-industry category for its Pavepoint data applications tracking of road damage in Lismore after the floods. The company’s official case study on the issue was published on Google Cloud.
The team’s efforts have resulted in further recognition in 2022, with Compass winning Startup of the Year at the SmallBiz Young Hero Awards and the Australian Small Business Champion Young Entrepreneur Award.
“We were featured on Nine News for our road safety trials with connected vehicles,” Emily says. “We have uptake from most Australian state governments, with most either currently in a trial with us or on longer-term contracts.”
The next phase for Emily and Angus is international expansion and further product innovation. They are looking at opportunities across the APAC region, the EU, and the UK, and ultimately plan to build a team on the ground in each of those locations.
This article first appeared in issue 39 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
