OCTO acquires Nebula Systems

OCTO Telematics, the leading global provider in transforming an IoT Big Data set into actionable intelligence, has acquired the entire share capital of Nebula Systems Ltd.

Nebula specialises in the development of advanced cloud technologies for the automotive and connected car industries. This means that its proprietary technologies are now available to make vehicle systems and data more accessible, so that a vehicle's health, status and operation can be monitored, analysed, diagnosed and maintained, faster and more effectively than ever before - anytime and anywhere.

OCTO continues its investment strategy in companies with high technological value, pursuing continuous portfolio innovation and market leadership. The acquisition confirms OCTO's unwavering commitment to respond to the increasing demand for vehicle usage data analysis tools, with advantages for insurance, automotive and mobility companies with its increasingly integrated and complete offering.

Modern cars are full of sensors that generate huge amounts of valuable data that can be used to enhance both the driver and fleet manager experience. The vast majority of this data is related to OEM Electronic Control Unit (ECU), protocol and CAN bus which are difficult for the aftermarket to access. The Nebula Systems diagnostic cloud solution is based on an integrated circuit and a suite of vehicle data analysis software applications in order to better respond to the increased complexity.

An integrated circuit, developed with proprietary technology, grants deep access to OEM level data. Vehicle telematics can therefore benefit from combining this telematics chipset with proprietary analysis software, which gives OCTO the ultimate flexibility and ease of access to OEM vehicle data by using a unique VIN-specific configuration file that contains the instructions to read Parameter ID (PID) sets from any OEM ECU on virtually any car. This technology uniquely combines the proprietary chipset and a cloud-based VIN interpreter and configuration files builder to fully access all the ECUs and thousands of PIDs a vehicle may have.

“We are very proud of this latest acquisition which places OCTO amongst the leading providers of fleet telematics leasing and renting organizations” said Nicola Veratelli, OCTO Group CEO. “Amongst many trends that are changing the mobility sector there are some that have a significant impact on fleet managers, such as the need to integrate data coming from the vehicle, each different from the other and defined for each manufacturer. OCTO solves the complexity of interpreting this data and offers impactful solutions which contribute to deliver additional value for fleet managers. We are committed to offer dozens of fleet telematics services to fleet managers and drivers: remote cloud-based diagnostics deriving from this Nebula acquisition is surely one of the most relevant.”

With this acquisition, the Nebula technology will be integrated in the standard OCTO offering. Furthermore, all OCTO telematics devices will integrate these capabilities, allowing OCTO solutions full access to all OEM ECUs and to use diagnostic trouble codes and Parameter IDs for the benefit of both drivers and fleet managers. The combination of these benefits will have a substantial impact on mobility management costs for fleet managers using the OCTO Fleet Telematics solution.