Seeing Machines

The future of Seeing Machines, an Australian designer of technology that tracks facial movement, looks more assured following the signing of a first major multi-million-dollar contract.

The deal, with one of the US’s largest telecoms companies, Dycom, is for Seeing Machine’s Driver State Sensor (DSS) technology, which monitors a driver’s levels of fatigue and distraction. It is to be installed in Dycom’s 10,000 vehicles. The initial payment, chief executive Nick Cerneaz clarifies, is ‘a minimum A$2.5m (£1.2m)’ for the first year and then over the contract’s ‘perpetual term’ the fee will rise on sales of hardware installation and maintenance.

The two companies have agreed for Dycom to use DSS as part of an advanced fleet management tool that it is developing. The deal and relationship with Dycom has made Seeing Machines a whole lot stronger and more confident.

‘The revenue, along with the A$3.2m we raised last year, has allowed us to do more research and development and more marketing of the product,’ confirms Cerneaz, who thinks the signing of this key deal will make other potential customers more confident. ‘We have other companies coming to us, including car manufacturers. This is the start of something big.’

The contract came as the company announced losses for the six months to December, in which revenues fell A$156,721 to A$1.2m and internal investment increased. Some of the spending went on pushing the group’s glaucoma-detecting product, TrueField, through the US regulatory process. Cerneaz says he’s in dialogue with potential commercial partners but wants to complete ongoing lab tests to strengthen his hand first. Expect news ‘within eight weeks’.

The shares virtually doubled to 3.38p on the Dycom news and have further upside potential for investors not averse to risk.

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