It was an eventful, exciting and instructive year. This is probably mainly due to the fact that we were able to build up a strong team within a very short time and thus offer a marketable solution which already generated its first profits.
Let’s look back one year
In 2020, Tobias Fischer, one of the three founders of ROADIA, was so narrowly overtaken by a car on his bicycle that he asked himself how such behavior could be prevented. It quickly became apparent that it might be difficult to talk to thousands of road users and convince them that a greater distance would be appropriate when overtaking, regardless of the fact that a greater lateral distance is required by law anyway.
After some consideration, he turned to Dr. Mykhaylo Filipenko, his former supervisor. Together with him, they looked for a third member of the team. Markus Hantschmann also had ambitions to help shape a start-up. The physicist trio to found ROADIA GmbH was complete. The fact that all three were spread across Germany and the world did not make it easy to concretize the plans. In retrospect, however, the location-independent collaboration represented a very good exercise for today's operation. Thus, Tobias Fischer worked from Berlin, Markus Hantschmann from Munich and Mykhaylo Filipenko from Colombia.
The journey begins
It's January 2021, and the trio of founders meet at the notary's office in Berlin to finalize in a contract what they have been working on for months. They want to make a significant contribution to greater road safety in Germany and around the world. ROADIA (then still Bl1tzR) is officially founded.
The first station was Reaktor Berlin. This Berlin Accelerator program was an important cornerstone. This was followed by other important programs for business development with the MTH and the German Accelerator. Within the framework of the German Accelerator Program, ROADIA also prepared itself for international markets at a very early stage.
12 months, 3 office buildings and 15 employees after its foundation, the company has developed into a serious provider of traffic safety solutions within a very short time. Less than nine months after its foundation, the company can present a marketable solution in the field of traffic data acquisition that is being actively used and requested.
Choice of Location
Most people have known for almost two years that a functioning company does not have to gather all its employees in one place. Nevertheless, every company needs a "headquarter" - a home port where ideas and forces can be bundled. After intensive research into the start-up centers of Europe, the ROADIA founders decided first on Berlin and then on a move to Potsdam instead of Amsterdam, Paris or London. There are a few good reasons for this.
Most important to the founders was the good start-up ecosystem in the Berlin/Brandenburg metropolitan region. Berlin Partner and the “Wirtschaftsförderung Brandenburg” (Economic Development Corporation of Brandenburg) offered great added value. In addition, Potsdam is close to the Berlin airport BER and, compared to the capital, you save an hour's drive in all directions, since you don't have to deal with Berlin's city traffic. Since then, the MediaTechHub Potsdam has been the home of the traffic safety start-up. After a few months in the Media Innovation Center (MIZ), located in Potsdam Babelsberg, ROADIA moved to the UFA premises opposite the Babelsberg film studios. The creative environment offers the best conditions.
The international team
Good accessibility from all over the world was also essential in terms of employee recruitment. Internationalization and New Work are the living culture at ROADIA. By December, 18 people from eight different countries are working to make road traffic safer.
At the heart of the company is the team of software developers who, thanks to expertise in various fields such as AI, UI, and computer vision, have the expertise to find a solution to any problem.
The broad expertise of our engineers allows electronics development, the design of the user interface as well as the online platform for the evaluation of relevant data to be created from within the company's own value creation.
The creative minds in a wide variety of fields - hardware, software and business development - work in close interaction with each other. What is remarkable is the relatively rapid development of a healthy corporate culture and the proactive exchange between the specialized teams. A living continuous learning process - like many things in a young company.
Solutions that offer a true added value
ROADIA also regularly undergoes a learning process in its exchanges with potential and existing customers in the field of traffic monitoring and speed measurement. There is great interest in the tailor-made solutions of the ambitious company. It is fascinating how quickly people can be inspired by "Simplicity". In Germany and around the world, the simplicity of the speed measurement system is being praised. Compact, uncomplicated, simply different! Whether Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland or the USA - ROADIA inspires municipalities, decision-makers at state level, public order offices and police departments. Hardly any solution in the governmental sector has caused as much of a stir and generated as much excitement as the monitoring and measurement systems of the Potsdam-based start-up.
Endurance test between the seas
ROADIA won the first European tender in June 2021. Traffic was to be counted at 140 measuring locations in Schleswig-Holstein. Due to a virus that was discovered two years ago and the resulting changes in the use of infrastructure; the nationwide road traffic count was postponed by one year. Thus, it was conducted in 2021 which opened the chance for ROADIA to prove itself. The result was the successful completion of a large scale contract.
No market share without the right market access
The successful market entry was favored above all by a partner who joined ROADIA GmbH at a very early stage. Thanks to the GovTech Group, the implementation of initial projects at the level achieved was possible, since the company comes up with two major advantages above all - network and expertise within the govtech space. The GovTech Group knows the market and access points, and thus contributes to the development of new products and the communication of these to early adopters.
Strong partnerships - also in the future
The next step towards further development has already been taken. Just recently, ROADIA won a commitment for a seven-figure grant from the Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg. The ERDF-supported ProFit funding provides the basis for the development, certification, and market launch of ROADIA's speed measurement system. The funding brings with it one thing above all - security.
We are looking forward to starting a new year and making the roads safer together with our partners! Be a part of it and support us in making the world a safer place.
Contact us if you have any questions or suggestions - we welcome any feedback to help us turn our vision into reality!
Enjoy the end of the year and think about our guiding words now and then in road traffic - RETHINK ROAD SAFETY
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