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Exploride HUD is an automotive product that functions as a head up display for any car.

Sunil Vallath, the founder and CEO of Exploride Inc got this idea of developing the product because of an accident in which his wife was involved.He searched online for a product that could help the driver access infotainment easily and safely. He found that there was no such product.

This incident took place in December 2013 when Vallath was working as systems engineer in the Middle East and his wife was studying in US. He quit his job and started the startup in August 2014. The motivation for this product is to reduce distraction and context switches due to mobile phones or consoles while driving . The HUD sits on the dashboard of the vehicles and shows relevant but minimal information in the line of sight of the driver using a projected virtual image; it uses cutting edge optical engineering , gesture and voice control to provide a compelling experience to the driver. Exploride runs custom operating system that’s built over android platform.  The solution also comprises an On - Board that generates IoT data for the vehicle that can help in understanding driving patterns and track vehicle parameters to improve efficiency.

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Sunil Vallath

Sunil holds a BS in computer Science and worked with Fortune 50 companies for years. Sunil has an in-depth knowledge of marketing and business development . Before Exploride , Sunil was Hardware and network engineer for companies like WIPRO and SYMANTEC . He has handled million dollar IT engineering projects in different parts of the world . Sunil is a hardware , automobile and technology enthusiast. Job Responsibilities:- ‘modeling and setting the company’s culture,values and behavior’ create the vision of the alternate future for the customers. Recruit and retain the best talent.’develop and lead the executive team’ Ensure the company’s product roadmap is in line’ ‘develop and maintain the business plan’.

Imad Samhat

Imad brings over 15+ years of manufacturing and supply chain experience to the company. Before Exploride , Imad was senior Director of Flextronics, a billion-dollar company that manufactures Apple and Fitbit . He was the Director of billion dollar startups like jawbone and sierra wireless, Imad graduated from carleton University.

Parvathy Sreekumar

Parvathy’s role is to improve the operational systems,support better management reporting ,information flow and management,business process and organizational planning. Parvathy holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from university of Baltimore. She started her career with Exploride in 2014 and she was one of the pre seed investors in Exploride.

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As Exploride was global product they reached Indiegogo for crowdfunding to reach larger audience.It was 90 days campaign

The startup raised $ 75,000 in early 2015 with Project Gorilla being the lead investor

They started pre-launch campaign five months before the launch; reaching out to various blogs, newspapers and other marketing channels.

Also analysed and month and days to launch the product.

They had $1000 PR Campaign.

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Target Audience was 25-45 years old age male with an average salary of 70,000 per year who is automobile enthusiast and technology enthusiast. Currently cars with inbuilt heads up displays are prices at an average of  65,000 to 1,50,000 range. Company is focusing on users who are purchasing car below 35,000. Exploride is breaking cost barrier with a hardware $499(Price is retail estimate. Pre-order price was $319). This will enable customers to experience better technology that is available in premium segment cars at low costs.

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Social Media

They used Twitter for promoting their Indiegogo Crowdfunding.

Exploride featured in The Economics Times, Times of India,The Hindus,Yahoo,business standard,Tech in Asia,ET tech. It came 3 times on the Indiegogo newsletter.

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There goal was to develop, manufacture  and support heads up display for automobiles.

Through crowdfunding they wanted to validate their product.

The campaign helped in gaining product and market validation.

Objectives over ten months March 2017- December 2017

Product : Bring the product to the market. Ship beta of Exploride heads-up display by April 2017

Development : Define a product family for O.E.M market, including enhancements, options and software for O.E.M. Compare the O.E.M. integration with spyker Automobiles and achieve O.E.M auto partnerships.

People: Assemble a team of people to lead the company through its rapid growth. Recruit high level marketing , developers and data scientists.

Financing : Objective is to obtain pre-series A by April 20,2017 and full funding by july 2017.

Tentative 2 year plan. Following launch on May 01,2017

Sales: 5000+ units that are already ordered via websites and indiegogo . Achieve sales of 20,000 units via e-commerce and Exploride website to achieve a revenue of $9.9M USD in fiscal years 2018. Achieve 45,000 unit orders  in second year and achieve two O.E.M partnership for platform integration and reach sales of $27M.

Release SDK: Release SDK for developers. Develop more intuitive applications for Exploride platform.

Insurance Partnership: Tie up with leading insurance agency in India or USA in the second year and provide OBDII adaptor of Exploride for customers who sign up or share their driving data. In exchange user can earn up to 30% discount on their vehicle insurance. This will help to  gather data about user driving data and habits.

They had 100K target goal in 90 days which they crossed in five days.Exploride’s campaign has been backed by 1,800 people from over 50 countries across the globe with maximum number of pledges were coming from the USA.It set the record in the crowdfunding history of Asian startups. Later reached $500k in 40 days of launch. Because product was low at price and also it was giving early bird offers . It was chosen as one of the Top 50 mobility startups of 2017 by the North American International Auto show and it was selected as a Hot 50 Startup of 2017 by The Economic Times.

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Exploride received more than 1,800 pre-orders from around 50 countries and from January 2016 product delivery was expected. They have received an order worth $1,300,000 from all around the world. TATA Motors, the world's 5th largest automotive company that owns Jaguar and Landrover showed their interest in partnering with Exploride for its autointegration and project sales of 7000 units in the first year. They integrated their platform in Spyker automobile.

The campaign set the record in the crowdfunding history of Asian startups but the product was never launched in the market on an expected date nor it was deliver to the customers who pre-ordered it. There is no sign of the company and product launch, in the public review section, many complained about not delivering the product. Also, no refund was given back.

It was said to be the biggest scam.

No update was on their official website and Twitter.

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Exploride is the organization that had a personal reason for the making of the product. When CEO and founder Sunil's wife met with an accident he gets an idea of making a futuristic hands-free display device for cars to combine music, GPS, and onboard diagnostics with the reasonable rate which can be afforded by the middle-class person. They even took feedbacks from the customers to know better what they expect from the product also made changes accordingly. They were replying to the emails and comments continues at the initial stage.
They chose Indiegogo for crowdfunding to connect with a larger population and to get validation, also to sell the product to a bigger audience.
They planned the launch of the product by considering the date and time when people are most likely to buy it, order it such as in an interview CEO mentioned" in the US, people receive tax returns in March, so it’s a good time to launch". This strategy works well when you count the time and date when a consumer is most likely to spend their money apart from feedbacks and reaching out to the people from different platforms such as their website, twitter and.
But there is no update on Twitter since August 8, 2017, the website, not opening. They were changing their delivery timing every time the deadline came about.
There is no news or update on the company and its members
It was a successful campaign but the end product was never launched.

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Exploride. “Offering Memorandum.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1697113/000166516017000186/offeringmemoformc.pdf.

Exploride."Indiegogo".

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/exploride-turn-your-car-into-a-smart-car#/
https://www.inc42.com/buzz/exploride-raised-500k-in-crowdfunding/

Ravi, Rajesh. “A safe drive, courtesy Exploride.” Financial Express, 12 october 2015, https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/a-safe-drive-courtesy-exploride/149714/.

soni, Yatti. “How This Startup From Kerala Pulled Off Asia’s Largest Crowdfunding Campaign.” Inc42, 8 october 2015,
https://www.inc42.com/buzz/exploride-raised-500k-in-crowdfunding/.

Exploride. Twitter account
https://twitter.com/goexploride?lang=en

Gupta, Rishab. “Exploride — Biggest scam on Indiegogo — Over $700,000 from 2300+ backers.” 2018, https://medium.com/@risrockz/exploride-biggest-scam-on-indiegogo-over-700-000-from-2300-backers-4f2e4da4839b.