Six months after it was acquired by Geotab of Oakville, Ont., Waterloo-based FleetCarma has announced it will move into Catalyst137, the sprawling hub for Internet of Things-related companies.
The move in early 2019 will allow FleetCarma – whose technology is helping to drive the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) – to hire an additional 100 employees in the coming months, the company said Wednesday in a release.
“Embedded in Geotab’s acquisition of FleetCarma was an understanding of the immense talent and innovative culture that is present in Kitchener-Waterloo,” said Matt Stevens, who co-founded FleetCarma with Chris Mendes, a University of Waterloo classmate, in 2007. “This expansion into Catalyst137 allows us to co-locate with other globally-focused IoT firms and provides significant space for our growth plans,” said Stevens, who is Geotab’s VP of Electric Vehicles and CEO of FleetCarma.
Housed in a low-slung former warehouse on Glasgow Street in Kitchener, Catalyst137 is a 475,000-square-foot facility that houses a growing number of IoT-related companies, including anchor tenant Miovision, which makes smart-intersection technology for hundreds of cities around the world. Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride spearheaded development of Catalyst137 and the company has worked closely with Geotab in the past.
FleetCarma’s telematics technology includes palm-sized devices that electric-car owners can plug into their vehicles’ diagnostic ports to gather data that, in turn, helps power authorities plan for the right kind of infrastructure to support EVs. The company had about 40 employees last year.
