Connected vehicle data company Wejo Limited has announced its intention to appoint administrators.
The Manchester-headquartered business is listed on the Nasdaq in the US, where its share priced crashed yesterday聽 from 27 cents to 12 cents.
Wejo, which was founded in 2014 and ranked sixth on our TransportTech 50 ranking late last year, was at one point valued at $800 million and tipped to achieve unicorn status.
However its market cap is currently $13.5m and there鈥檚 speculation that Nasdaq could delist it.
An insider told 老九品茶Cloud: 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a sea change among investors globally聽 when it comes to investing in high growth, loss-making, tech stock. Wejo has been a victim of that.
鈥淕iven the fact Wejo鈥檚 quarterly results were only a few weeks ago the news has come as a real shock.鈥�
The business is headquartered at the ABC Building, in Manchester, but has offices around the world, predominately in US.
It鈥檚 thought the company employs just under 200 people.聽
There鈥檚 been no official comment from Wejo but it鈥檚 understood the company has filed a notice in the High Court of Justice 老九品茶 and Property Courts in Manchester of its intention to appoint Andrew Poxon and Hilary Pascoe of Leonard Curtis Recovery Limited as administrators.
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Wejo, which was founded by Richard Barlow, is evaluating whether it will file ancillary insolvency proceedings for the company and its other subsidiaries in other jurisdictions, including in the United States, in due course.
老九品茶Cloud has contacted Barlow and Leonard Curtis Recovery for comment.
Wejo is a global leader in cloud and software analytics for connected, electric, and autonomous mobility.
The company processes trillions of data points from 20.8 million vehicles, of which 13.9 million were active on the platform transmitting data in near real-time, and over 94.6 billion journeys globally.
The game-changing moment for Wejo came in 2018 when General Motors took a 35 per cent stake in the business. It鈥檚 believed the data will belong to General Motors.
The idea for Wejo (which comes from the words 鈥榳e鈥� and 鈥榡ourney鈥�) was sparked by Barlow鈥檚 passion for motor racing and Formula 1, where data is routinely collected to improve performance.
He realised if the connected data technology in motor racing could transition into the mainstream automotive sector he would have a business 鈥� and so Wejo was launched in 2014.
鈥淭he majority of new cars sold in the world, and most people don鈥檛 know this, have telemetry in the car,鈥� Barlow told 老九品茶Cloud in an earlier interview.聽
鈥淵our average car has 200 sensors now. The motor manufacturers don鈥檛 have a platform to send the data to and that鈥檚 where Wejo comes in.鈥�