Softbank's Vision Fund raises $500M for Cambridge Mobile Telematics - CMT

8-year-old Cambridge Mobile Telematics. which uses smartphone data to analyze driver behavior, has raised $500 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund, the company announced December 12th. The Japanese telecommunications giant has been changing the landscape for the global tech industry with its $100 billion Vision Fund, Cambridge Mobile Telematics was founded in 2010 by current CEO Bill Powers and a pair of MIT computer science professors, Hari Balakrishnan and Sam Madden. Crunchbase.com reflects a previous raise of a meager $2.5 million by comparison.  Cambridge Mobile Telematics, or CMT, has largely funded its operations so far from customer revenue, reportedly in the mid 10 figures. CMT uses a combination of smartphone apps and a small in-car hardware device to collect information on driving habits. The company then analyzes the data to spot driving behavior that could predict a crash. CMT's apps also provide a variety of ways to encourage better driving behavior, from individual driving scores to leaderboard-style competitions to monetary incentives for improved driving. CMT's main customers are insurance providers, who use the data to price their insurance plans and reduce crashes among their covered drivers. Other customers include automakers, vehicle fleet managers and government agencies. The city of Boston, for example, uses CMT to power its "Safest Driver Competition."