Idelic, a Pittsburgh-based startup in the transportation technology space, closed a $1m seed financing round led by Birchmere Ventures, with additional investment from McCune Capital and M25 Group. In conjunction with the financing, Birchmere partner Sean Sebastian joined Idelic's Board of Directors.

Said Mr. Sebastian, "The trucking industry is rapidly being transformed by technology ranging from autonomous vehicles to sophisticated predictive safety system analytics. Idelic's state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology brings an unsurpassed level of integration, sophistication, and functionality to trucking safety systems."

Idelic uses proprietary machine learning analytics to help transportation fleets identify at-risk drivers and assign corrective action before accidents happen. The company is collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program to develop these powerful algorithms that can predict which drivers are most at risk for accidents, incidents, injuries, violations, and citations.

Idelic was founded by Carnegie Mellon alumni Hayden Cardiff, Andrew Russell, and Nick Bartel as a spinout of Pittsburgh-based less-than-truckload (LTL) Carrier PITT OHIO, a company with industry-leading safety and performance records.

PITT OHIO CEO Chuck Hammel added, "This is a safety product that all safety professionals will love because of it's functionality and predictive analysis capabilities. There is nothing like it on the market."

Fleets today deal with safety and compliance by using complex spreadsheets and disparate third-party systems. Idelic's safety and risk management system, SafetyBox, provides a cutting edge and comprehensive data management platform that integrates all of these systems to provide unique insights into fleet and driver data.

"Our latest machine learning algorithm predicted 90% of large truck accidents based on rich customer data. Now we're rolling that same model into predicting violations, incidents, injuries, and other risk metrics that cost fleets significant amounts of money each year," said Idelic CEO Hayden Cardiff.

Nick Bartel, Idelic's COO, sees the future of transportation safety incorporating all fleet data systems, "By uncovering new insights hidden within complex fleet data, we can positively impact all drivers out on the road. Our goal is to not only help fleets save time, money, and the lives of their drivers, but also to help make our roads and highways safer for everyone."

About Idelic
Idelic helps transportation fleets save time, money, and lives. By leveraging its powerful machine learning platform, comprehensive data management system, and extensive third party integrations, the company provides a custom enterprise solution for safety managers to automate compliance, predict at-risk drivers, and prescribe action before accidents happen. More information about Idelic and SafetyBox can be found at www.idelictech.com.

About Birchmere Ventures
Since 1996 Birchmere Ventures has partnered with entrepreneurs to help build high-growth technology companies. The firm, with offices in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, has invested in many dozens of seed-stage startups, resulting in numerous IPOs and M&A transactions representing over $14b in value. More information about Birchmere Ventures can be found at www.birchmerevc.com.

About McCune Capital
McCune Capital is a New York-based venture capital firm, founded by Jason Cahill. Focused on seed-stage ventures disrupting transportation, energy, agriculture, and manufacturing, McCune's portfolio currently has ten active investments. The fund's hands-on approach, asymmetric sourcing methods, and diverse background of advisors has allowed McCune to establish themselves as a key partner in the New York seed-stage arena. More can be found at mccune.vc.

About M25 Group
M25 Group is a Chicago-based Midwest-focused venture capital firm run by Victor Gutwein and Mike Asem. Since the fund's inception in 2015, the firm has invested in over fifty early-stage, Midwest-based tech startups. M25's objective, analytical model has helped support their thesis and craft an 'index fund of Midwest startups.' Their collaborative, forward-thinking approach and diverse investments across industries and business models throughout the region have allowed M25 to establish themselves as a key node in Midwest startup ecosystem. More can be found at m25group.com.