WayRay

WayRay

Type	Private
Industry	Entertainment
Founded	2012 (2012)
Headquarters	Moscow, Lausanne, Russia, Switzerland
Area served	Russia, Switzerland
Key people	Vitaly Ponomarev
Products	Automotive navigation system
Number of employees	more 100
Website	http://wayray.com/

WayRay is a technology company with offices in Switzerland and Russia. It develops navigation systems for cars using augmented reality technology, as well as a software and hardware collecting information about driving and correcting the behavior of the driver. By the beginning of 2017 the company employed more than 100 engineers in offices in Lausanne and Moscow.

History

According to Vitaly Ponomarev, company’s founder, the idea of a device that projects navigational information on the windshield of the car came to him after the accident into which he got when he was distracted by the GPS navigator. The concept was gradually supplemented by the Internet connection, mechanics of the social network and augmented reality. By December 2011, the idea became a project of a portable collimator to install on a car’s front panel. Using a thin holographic film on the windshield instead of a mirror system made it possible to reduce the dimensions of the device. In the spring of 2012, the device was presented for the first time.^[1][2][3]

In the summer of 2013, the company received the status of a resident in business incubator of the Skolkovo Innovation Center.^[1] In early 2014, Ponomarev became a laureate of the national innovation prize for young scientists and specialists "Zvorykinsky Award" in the nomination "Instrument-Making".^[4] WayRay's achievements were noted by non-Russian media: the Business Insider magazine in 2013 and Wired magazine in 2014 included the company in the lists of the most promising start-ups in Northern Europe and Moscow.^[5][6]

Switzerland

Speaking at an industry conference in Valencia in 2013, Ponomarev got the attention of the Agency for Economic Development of the Geneva-Bern region. Swiss officials invited him to open an office in the country and organized meetings with representatives of the cantons. The company chose Vaud, and the local association for economic development helped the company to obtain documents, work permits, and to establish contacts with authorities and representatives of the scientific community. In 2014, WayRay's head office opened in Lausanne. According to Ponomarev, the decision to locate the headquarters in Lausanne, rather than California, was due to relatively low corporate taxes and overhead costs, as well as agreements on double taxation avoidance between Switzerland, the United States and China. The R&D center remained in Russia, production - in China. The company also planned to transfer to Switzerland the most high-tech, know-how production phase - the production of optical elements. The possibility of renting a site in the Y-Parc Technology Park in the canton of Vaud or building a small plant in the canton of Schaffhausen was considered.^[7][8][3]

Investments

Initial capital of WayRay was 12 million rubles of personal and borrowed funds of the founder, which was aimed at designing electronics and developing a chemical formula of the film, later ordered at DuPont. In 2013, the project attracted a syndicated investment deal involving three business angels and two Russian funds for a total of $1.6 million. By mid-2016, the company invested $10.6 million in development. In his talk with the Reuters reporter, Ponomarev noted that he had held about 500 negotiation sessions to find suitable investors, including “AFK “Sistema” of Vladimir Yevtushenkov, “Zertum-Invest” of Filipp Polianski.^{[9][10][11][12][3]}

In March 2017 it was announced that WayRay attracted $18 million of investment involving the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group.^[13][14]

Developments

In 2017, the company plans to bring two developments to the US market:^[15]

• Element - a device that includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer and Bluetooth and GLONASS / GPS modules, it connects to the OBD-II port and collects information about the driver's behavior, speed, fuel consumption and vehicle condition. The collected information is available in digital form. The mobile application Archetype provides recommendations for improving driving skills based on this information, and the entertainment application Autoyoga offers to pass quests.^[16][17]
• Navion - a navigation system for cars which uses augmented reality technology. The device includes a transparent holographic film, which is applied to the windshield of the car, and a laser projector, which displays information about the route and other information, taking into account the speed of the car. The device is controlled by voice commands, includes 3G, Bluetooth and GLONASS / GPS modules and uses its own navigation software based on OpenStreetMap maps.^{[8][2][6][13][18]}

In December 2015, the company announced a partnership agreement with the French provider of telecommunications services, Orange Business Services, under which it will provide wireless connection and maintenance of WayRay products in the US.^[16][19] In January 2017, at the CES-2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company announced a strategic partnership with the US automotive electronics manufacturer Harman International Industries and the planned introduction of WayRay technologies into Harman's solutions for automakers. The autonomous concept car Oasis of the Swiss company Rinspeed was presented at the exhibition. It is equipped with the infotainment system with augmented reality developed by WayRay.^[20][21][13]

WayRay’s business model includes both retail sales Navion Navigator and concluding OEM-contracts with automakers on the supply of AR-system. Banma Technologies, a joint venture between Alibaba Group and Chinese auto concern SAIC Motor, is a WayRay’s partner which works with carmakers on its behalf. Pilot implementation of the system is planned in one of the production cars.^[13][14]

References

Links

• Official website