{Startup Watch: MTAP Technologies} Revolutionizing Transport Automation in the B2B Sector

This Bengaluru based startup is redefining fleet transportation operations for organizations across multiple industries through its line of cutting-edge products.

A crowded and mismanaged transport is always a source of stress, whether it is for working women or school going children. Now, transport automation has taken up this cause, with an aim to ease the challenges in transport.

The Tech Panda spoke to Srinivas Chitturi, Co-founder and CEO of MTAP Technologies, a SaaS-based provider of IoT-powered digital platforms to track, manage, and automate a wide range of transportation requests.

Our goal is to build a ‘shopify’ environment, enabling fleet operators to survive and flourish with technology on par with the large Transport-as-a-Service platform players

“Our goal is to build a ‘shopify’ environment, enabling fleet operators to survive and flourish with technology on par with the large Transport-as-a-Service platform players,” says Chitturi.

What They Do

 MTAP has developed algorithms to reduce the number of vehicles and trips, which saves up to 30% of transportation costs. There are multiple variants of algorithms to suit the different needs of different organizations. Their product does not mandate the installation of any hardware. All that is needed is a smartphone and an Internet connection.

It uses the GPS tracker embedded in smartphones to connect with GPS satellites and extract real-time data about the geographical location and all related events. All computation is carried out on the cloud servers, which store, analyze, and send data to authorized devices without needing to be prompted.

Our company is at the forefront of revolutionizing transport automation in the B2B sector. We wanted to bring down costs, time, and fuel usage, make employee transport safe, and bring transparency to an industry in which transactions happened under the table

With fine grained Data Access controls, only the required data can be accessed by someone with the authorization to do so. This process enables real-time communication, which in turn makes scheduling, live tracking, monitoring, troubleshooting, and invoicing available on  fingertips.

“Our company is at the forefront of revolutionizing transport automation in the B2B sector. We wanted to bring down costs, time, and fuel usage, make employee transport safe, and bring transparency to an industry in which transactions happened under the table,” says Chitturi.

The MTAP team has worked hard to introduce optimization, transparency, safety, and digitization.

“The idea was to reduce the number of vehicles and trips required for both economic and ecological purposes. We aim to keep carbon footprint minimal,” he adds.

MTAP Origin

The MTAP Technologies journey began when Srinivas Chitturi, an alumnus of IIT Madras, worked at iOPEX Technologies as the Director of Research and Development, where he was responsible for development of products to help support automation and optimization, remote infrastructure monitoring, etc.

While working with various companies to optimize their operational costs across various company functions, he noticed the complexity of the transport operations at iOPEX. His research into the matter led him to identify the lack of organization in the ETS industry, and the lack of safety features, especially for women employees.

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He led a team to build a routing algorithm to enable planning, management, and optimization of transport operations for iOPEX employees. On seeing demonstrable optimization of costs at iOPEX, the product was launched as Safetrax with an initial seed round from the iOPEX Founding team. Thus, MTAP was born.

After 18 months from the launch of Safetrax, the team noticed a similar challenge waiting to be solved in the school bus transport services space, where automation and digitization were both the need of the hour. Starting with three clients in 2014, MTAP has come a long way, driving value and increasing profitability, serving over 120+ clients across six countries.

“We wanted to bring transparency into every step of the management process to obtain the rarest currency found these days, trust. We feel blessed that we can reduce the incidents of violence against women with our safety features and emergency protocols,” he says.

MTAP USP

MTAP claims to be the only company to offer such a wide range of automated fleet management solutions in the B2B space.

“Unlike many struggling companies, we have the technology, packaged and offered on a platter,” says Chitturi.

Unlike many struggling companies, we have the technology, packaged and offered on a platter

Their home-grown algorithms offer customers a plethora of parameters for route optimization, including seating capacity. Yet, they recognize that the real challenge is to be in sync with their customers’ goals.

“We aren’t a free size company; we believe in providing customized solutions. Our algorithms can achieve the optimal balance that is required,” he says.

MTAP Growth Story

When MTAP entered the transport optimization market with their flagship product Safetrax, the industry was still nascent. They branched into school bus transport when they identified the need for automated school bus fleet management.

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They have recently launched Autologix, an app that enables real-time taxi booking for ad hoc trip requests, and Autoroutes, an API that optimizes routes for different types of delivery-based businesses.

In the last financial year, invoices to the tune of about US $70 million invoices were processed on the platform and MTAP charged about 2% as a subscription fee. Chitturi says they are aiming for 10x growth in the next three years with new products and regions.

MTap is already present in Oman, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines. Within the next 18 months, they plan to establish a strong presence in the US market along with the Middle East, China, Qatar, New Zealand, Singapore.  Their clientele includes organizations such as Target, Webhelp, Access Healthcare, Omega Healthcare, and 247.ai.