PRESS RELEASE
Tech veteran joins Board of Connected Car leader to drive expansion
Tantalum Corporation (“Tantalum”) today announces the appointment of technology market veteran Ian Drew as Chairman of the Board.
The appointment follows a period of rapid expansion for Tantalum, which made five new senior hires in January 2017 (goo.gl/3wn0ZF), as it strengthens its market-leading position in the rapidly developing Connected Car sector.
Recognised across the technology sector, Ian Drew has international leadership experience with FTSE and NASDAQ-listed companies including ARM Holdings and Intel.
During his career, Ian has helped revolutionise the technology industry from sole PC use to mobile phones and tablets, notably leading ARM’s “Internet of Things” security and Connected Car strategy. During his 12-year tenure with ARM, the company market capitalization grew 17x, before being sold to Softbank for $32bn in 2016.
Ian will help to develop Tantalum’s position as the leading provider of Connected Car technology services, including insurance, crash detection, roadside assistance, parking and accident management. Tantalum’s end-to-end ecosystem of services is underpinned by a proprietary global billing and payment platform: Pay.Car. Security is paramount in all of Tantalum’s applications.
In particular Ian will help to drive Tantalum’s “pay as you pollute” solutions, which are attracting increasing attention as governments and local authorities worldwide seek to battle rising air pollution. Tantalum this week announced a competition for cities worldwide to set up the world’s first real time emissions-based road user charging scheme.
The news comes on the back of the firm’s listing in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 for a second year running at number 14, as well as the receipt of GP Bullhound’s Connect Award for revenue growth over the past three years.
Cédriane de Boucaud Truell, CEO of Tantalum, commented:
“We welcome Ian to Tantalum. Ian’s vast experience across the technology landscape and a deep understanding of the potential for the Connected Car will be key to growing our international footprint. Ian’s track record is exceptional. He has all the qualities required to lead this firm to its next stage of development and we look forward to achieving considerable successes together.”
“Tantalum already uses its world leading technology in fuel-saving algorithms and emissions estimation, to save our customers up to 20% in fuel costs. At a time when pollution and transport improvement initiatives are driving news and political agendas, we are opening an exciting chapter for the firm. Our unique ability to provide a complete emissions-based road user-charging scheme would enable delivery of the Mayor of London's plans to improve the capital's air quality. Tantalum could roll out the Government's Clean Air Zones across the UK at a much lower cost to drivers and local
authorities than the proposed blunt instrument of camera-based systems.”
Ian Drew, Chairman of Tantalum, commented: “I am delighted to be joining the Tantalum board as Chairman. Tantalum is uniquely positioned at the junction between technology, the automotive space and SaaS with solutions such as our Pay.Car and “Pay as you Pollute” technology, and an ecosystem of partners including Samsung, AT&T and SAP. I am confident that Tantalum will play a leading role in the transformation of the automotive market in the UK, Europe and globally over the coming years.”
About Tantalum
Tantalum Corporation (“Tantalum”) is a leading end-to-end telematics connected car service provider. As a best-in-class technology innovator, and building on proven value propositions, Tantalum’s mission is to become the “go to” aggregator of vehicle services alongside blue chip partners targeting the high growth vehicle IoT market of at least £400bn.
Tantalum is partnered with technology leaders globally including TomTom, Samsung, ATOS Worldline, SAP, PwC and TNT.
Tantalum can reliably connect its data and billing platform to customers’ value chain. To drive this forward, Tantalum has been engaging with their most trusted supporters, such as AA, Allianz, Direct Line Group, Hastings, IF, EE, BSkyB, Virgin Media, Motability, LeasePlan, and the City of London to provide a range of services that change the IoT
services landscape.
Tantalum’s proposition is concentrated around ‘the connected vehicle’ – a £400bn global market, with an addressable market of over 700mln vehicles. Basing its proposition on proven delivery, including fuel savings (average 12% and up to 22%), reduction in insurance claims of up to 53%, reduction of emissions by up to 20%’; and the recovery of over £500m in stolen vehicles.
Tantalum is creating the next generation “go-to” global eco-system for the connected vehicle, in partnership with Samsung’s ConnectAuto. Tantalum has built a device-agnostic platform to be integrated with non-proprietary platforms such as Android and iOS smartphones; and for in-vehicle embedded solutions, included in autonomous vehicles.
Customers include motor manufacturers, insurance underwriters and brokers, fleets / rental / leasing companies, consumers, government agencies and dealerships.
