San Diego’s Lytx, which provides video cameras in the cabs of commercial trucks to improve driver safety, said today it has been acquired by Chicago private equity firm GTCR for more than $500 million.

The deal is being billed as providing a financial foundation for Lytx’s continued growth, according to Brandon Nixon, chairman and chief executive of Lytx.

Founded in 1980, GTCR’s strategy is to invest in executive teams of mid-size companies that are leaders in their respective markets and then help them grow.

Industry analysts Frost & Sullivan pegged Lytx’s market share in the video telematics industry at 66 percent last year. The company added 365 new customers in 2015 and boosted the number of vehicles with its cameras by more than 100,000 last year.


“Lytx is already driving its strong vision of expanding the video telematics category, and their clear market leadership is proof the team can continue to record stellar results,” said GTCR Managing Director Phil Canfield in a statement.

Existing Lytx executives, including Nixon, will remain in their current roles. Lytx now employs about 400 workers, up from around 300 last year. The company will remain in San Diego, said Nixon.

“As we have grown, we have structured our company so investors can come in and out based on their liquidity desires,” he said. “We had such a good run over the last three or four years, it has attracted a lot of investor interest, and GTCR was one of them.”

Video images and data captured by Lytx’s DriveCam system used by commercial trucking fleets (Lytx)


Founded in 1998 under the name DriveCam, Lytx has raised about $100 million in venture capital over the years as it worked to convince commercial truck operators that they needed video in the cab to improve driver safety and protect themselves against lawsuits in case of accidents.

But early on, video was a tough sell. Truck drivers resisted being under the lens while working. Many fleet operators already used non-video GPS fleet tracking technology that included accelerometers, which can detect hard braking, rapid acceleration and similar driver performance data. So the addition of video wasn’t viewed as critical.

Over time, objections to video have broken down for commercial truck operators, many of which are self-insured and see video as a way to reduce risk.

“The interesting thing that happened over the last 18 months was video became the standard in commercial fleet safety,” said Nixon.


San Diego also is home to SmartDrive, another video telematics company that competes with Lytx. SmartDrive raised $50 million in venture capital last year.

Lytx sells its DriveCam-brand cameras and driver safety software on a subscription basis. It has more than 300,000 subscribers today — with customers including Swift Transportation, YRC, Land O’ Lakes, Vulcan Materials and the city of Atlanta.

There’s plenty of room to grow, with 81 million commercial trucks on the road worldwide, according to Lytx.

In addition, Lytx has begun offering additional services beyond driver safety to its fleet customers.


“The device — the sensor — that we put into the vehicle is really a technology platform that allows us to add on services, such as fleet tracking, fuel management and maintenance management — all the things it takes for a company to manage their fleet,” said Nixon.

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @TechDiego