Drive Software Solutions has secured new funding and launched a further £10m investment round under plans to further drive growth of its ODO fleet management platform.

Drive Software Solutions said the £10m investment round will continue to accelerate the growth of its ODO fleet management platform

In the last quarter, the business has gained the first phase of funding from John Porter, a leading technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and a shareholder of Viva Investment Partners, which acquired Drive Software Solutions in November 2019. Details have not been announced but the funding is said to be significant.

The business is also now preparing a larger second phase of funding for £10m (€11.55m), further to recent client and partnership wins yet to be announced, and also said to be significant.

This comes on the back of new customer deals over the last 12 months, encompassing supply and support agreements with a variety of corporates and their fleet managers, including Acosta Europe, with UK brokers such as Select Fleet Solutions and leasing companies such as Rivervale. Drive’s solutions are now used in more than 1.5 million vehicles.

In a statement, the company said: “The £10m investment round will continue to accelerate the growth of ODO, our fleet management platform, powered by Oracle Cloud, which has enabled brokers and dealers across the United Kingdom to build digital businesses during Covid.”

The business added that the coming decade will see demand for fleet managers to maintain a balance between EV and ICE vehicles, for which ODO data management provides the required systems.

Julie Meyer, director of Drive Software Solutions and CEO of Viva Investment Partners, said: “Drive’s ODO will become the de-facto standard for fleet managers of electric vehicles, turning every charging network into a fleet manager.”

• Richard Parris, chairman, Rob Gorby, chief commercial officer, and Tim Shields, chief product officer of Drive Software Solutions, are keynoting at the 12^th Annual Follow The Entrepreneur (FTE) Summit in Mykonos on 5 October 2021.