SmartBike is making a device that allows users to track where their motorbikes are with a SIM card

SmartBike is stepping on stage today at Startup Arena to pitch as on of a few hardware startups in our competition next to Bio3D Technologies and Garuda Robotics. But instead of pitching a product that involves 3D printing and biology, we’re looking at a startup that seeks to disrupt the transportation space. SmartBike is a small device that houses a SIM and allows users to track where their motorbike is via GPS. In other words, it’s a theft prevention device for motorbike users.

Here’s some perspective on the Vietnamese transportation market: it’s dominated by mobiles and motorbikes. With a population of 90 million, the country has over 30 million motorbikes and smartphone penetration is closely approaching 40 percent of the mobile market.

It’s also a market, especially in SmartBike’s home city of Ho Chi Minh city, where theft is rampant. Most motorbike drivers are always paranoid about getting their motorbike stolen, and many pay at least $1,000 to $5,000 for a motorbike that they use everyday. Losing your motorbike in Vietnam is losing your lifestyle. To counteract this, the society has come up with all sorts of parking mechanisms to safeguard people’s bikes when they’re away and owners are always locking their motorbike necks to prevent theft. Despite this, the black market for motorbikes is still huge. People constantly get their motorbikes stolen.

SmartBike hits at all of the pain points of Vietnamese motorbike owners. The device itself does a number of things including:

• When called, the device will ring and let the user know where the motorbike is.
• When texted, the device will send the GPS location of the motorbike, turn off the motorbike, or sound an alarm.
• It also has bluetooth, which turns off the motorbike when the owner’s smartphone is not near the motorbike. You can only turn on the motorbike when you’ve also got your smartphone.

The device will be sold at local motorbike dealerships as an add-on. SmartBike is looking to get $500,000 of investment for their project, and are especially looking into partners in Indonesia that have retail expertise to be able to ship SmartBike across a country of over 65 million motorbikes.

Judge’s had several thoughts on the SmartBike. Nobutake Suzuki brought up the suggestion the team works with insurance companies. Khailee Ng asks how many insurance packages have been sold, none so far. There’s also been no devices sold so far. Saemin Ahn suggests that SmartBike diversifies its business model and work on building a new platform or ecosystem on top of the product. Ahn thinks that SmartBike could work specifically with web browsers like Opera, because “adopting a hardware platform is a much harder sell”. Ng and Ahn seem to be interested in the technology.