Berlin, 26th August 2022. Vay, a leading teledrive company, has announced a new addition to its team: Justin Spratt starts as Vice President of Business & Corporate Development. He joins from Uber, where he was Head of Global Strategic Partnerships.
At Uber, Justin was responsible for global strategic partnerships focused on deals with automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), vehicle fleet operators, vehicle battery technology companies and electrification infrastructure providers. At Vay, he will focus on both business and corporate development and work on relationships with strategic partners.
“I wanted to work on goals that would have a big impact on society. And I wanted to work with the smartest and most innovative people in the tech world. That’s better at Vay than any other company I’ve spoken to recently,” Justin explains why he joined the teledrive company.
Prior to joining Uber, Justin was CEO and chief growth officer at Quirk, a marketing software services company acquired by WPP. After studying economics and finance, he began his professional life at Morgan Stanley as a fixed income trader. Justin built the first startup incubator in Africa in 2002 and has been mentoring founders of technology startups for over ten years. He is an angel investor in software technology and holds board positions in some of these companies.
Justin will work closely with Thomas von der Ohe, Vay’s co-founder and CEO: “I am delighted that we have been able to attract Justin. We have ambitious plans. We want to solve transportation in metropolitan areas. With his background in mobility services partnerships, Justin brings the right experience to help us take our next steps.”
Vay is developing an alternative approach to autonomous driving called teledriving. The teledriving technology enables a person (“teledriver”) to control a vehicle remotely. Teledrivers sit at a teledrive station with a steering wheel, pedals and all necessary operation devices developed according to automotive industry standards. The visual perception is reproduced via camera sensors and transmitted to the screens of the teledrive station. Road traffic sounds, such as emergency vehicles and other warning signals, are transmitted via microphones to the teledriver’s headphones.
With its teledrive-first-approach Vay aims to launch a unique, affordable, and sustainable door-to-door mobility service that can be an alternative to existing mobility services.
About Vay
Vay is a technology-enabled mobility company that aims to bring sustainable, affordable and door-to-door-mobility services to metropolitan areas. The company plans to launch a service with teledriven electric cars on European public streets. Teledrivers bring the car directly to a valid pick-up location for the customer and pick it up after the journey is completed, eliminating the time-consuming search for a parking spot. While in the car, the customers drive themselves. In addition to teledriving, Vay aims to gradually introduce autonomous driving functions in the system as it is safe and permitted to do so.
Vay was founded in Berlin in September 2018 by Thomas von der Ohe, Fabrizio Scelsi and Bogdan Djukic. Vay’s team of 150+ people combines talent from multiple worlds: from automotive and safety engineering to software, product, regulatory, operations and many more. The company has offices in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, as well as in Portland, OR. Vay recently raised a USD 95m Series B funding round. Investors include Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, La Famiglia and Creandum as well as prominent Business Angel Investors such as former Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette and Spotify’s Chief Technology & Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström. www.vay.io