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About

Our mission: Revolutionize how we build the world

Autonomous heavy equipment will revolutionize the construction and mining industries—and the role of equipment operators. Teleo is working to make the promise of autonomy real, one smart step at a time.

Teleo was founded to provide a novel incremental pathway to full autonomy, starting now. The Teleo Supervised Autonomy technology lets construction companies retrofit their existing fleets of heavy equipment to supercharge productivity, save money, and make being an equipment operator safe and comfortable.

By taking this pragmatic “crawl-walk-run” approach, Teleo delivers the benefits of supervised autonomy now, while allowing construction and mining companies to amortize their investments as the technology matures toward fully autonomous heavy equipment operation.

Leadership

Teleo’s leadership team brings deep expertise in building autonomous cars, mining millions of tons of aggregate, and working on foundational technologies in areas such as computer vision, machine learning, AI, and robotics.

Portrait of VINAY SHET Co-founder and CEO

Vinay Shet

Co-founder and CEO

As Teleo’s co-founder and CEO, Vinay Shet is responsible for setting the strategic vision of the company and putting in place the elements needed to bring that vision to life. He previously was Director of Product Management at Lyft Level 5 leading the Mapping, Data, and Knowledge efforts for Lyft’s self-driving car initiative.

Before Lyft, Vinay was at Google leading Product Management for Google Street View, Google Maps, and Google reCAPTCHA, products that are used by millions of people worldwide. At Google, he led the team that pioneered the use of machine learning to create maps data from Google Street View and Aerial Imagery. Additionally, he was also one of the creators of Google reCAPTCHA’s “I’m not a robot” CAPTCHA.

Vinay has a Ph.D. in Computer Science focusing on Computer Vision from the University of Maryland, College Park and was a Scientist at Siemens Corporate Research, focused on Machine Learning and Computer Vision, for several years post-Ph.D. He has published over 20 papers and has over 25 issued/pending patents.

Portrait of ROM CLEMENT Co-founder and CTO

Rom Clement

Co-founder and CTO

Rom Clement is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Teleo. Prior to Teleo, he was the Head of Hardware Engineering at Lyft, directly responsible for the design, manufacturing, and operation of Lyft’s self-driving cars. In a brief 18-month period, he grew an organization of 65+ engineers and deployed two generations of self-driving cars in Palo Alto, CA. 

Prior to Lyft, Rom spent over a decade at Google, where he supervised engineering teams that built custom camera systems for the Google Street View and for Google’s airplane-mounted imaging platform. At Google Fiber, he grew a team responsible for the development of laser telecommunication systems for space and aerial applications.

Both while at Google and Lyft, Rom was involved in M&A activities as well as in the development of partnerships with automotive Tier 1 and OEMs.

Rom has a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan.

Portrait of MARK PIOTTO Vice President of Sales

Mark Piotto

Vice President of Sales

Responsible for Teleo sales worldwide, Mark Piotto brings to Teleo a strong background in the construction industry, with over 18 years in construction automation and heavy equipment sales, service, and training.

Mark began his career as a 3D machine control sales professional in Ontario, Canada, where he received numerous awards in recognition of his superior sales skills and business acumen. He then moved across Canada where he held a number of positions for one of the largest Canadian-based John Deere dealers. He served as a Sales Manager, Major Accounts Manager, and Canadian Director of Construction Technology Sales, educating his customers and peers on the latest innovations in construction technology.

Portrait of MARTIJN HOPPENBROUWERS Vice President of Operations and Customer Success

Martijn Hoppenbrouwers

Vice President of Operations and Customer Success

An experienced operations executive, Martijn Hoppenbrouwers is
responsible for making the trains run on time at Teleo. He has a passion for technology that makes work safe and efficient, and he helps our partners
and customers be successful in using our solutions.

Most recently, Martijn served as the VP of Operations at Dusty Robotics, another construction robotics startup, leading their field, customer service,
manufacturing, and supply chain operations. Prior to that he spent more than 15 years at Topcon Positioning Systems, rising to the role of VP of Engineering Operations and leading their new product introduction (NPI),
supply chain, compliance, and project management teams.

Earlier in his career, Martijn worked in his native Netherlands in various
logistics, supply chain, financials, and board of directors roles. He holds a master’s degree in business economics and management of information
systems from Tilburg University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Portrait of JOSH JIMENEZ Director of Hardware Integration

Josh Jimenez

Director of Hardware Integration

With a strong background in automotive engineering and mechanical design, Josh Jimenez oversees the integration of Teleo Supervised Autonomy technology into heavy equipment. He spent more than five years with Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicles subsidiary, as Vehicle Safety Lead and then Senior Researcher developing their vehicle safety architecture, which led to several patents with Zoox. Prior to Zoox, he led the design, manufacturing, and implementation of the first iteration of Tesla’s full-scale crash facility.


Before coming to Silicon Valley, Josh was the Director of Product Development for Safety Engineering International (SEI) in Santa Barbara, California, where he led the early-stage product development and developed manufacturing partnerships on five continents. Earlier in his career, he developed crash test machinery and performed crash testing as a Senior Design and Test Engineer for the Center for Injury Research. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UC Santa Barbara.

Niki Nikatos

Director of Marketing

An accomplished marketing leader, Niki has a wealth of experience in the automotive and transportation industries. Previously, she served as the Head of Automated Vehicle Marketing at Woven by Toyota. Prior to that, she played a pivotal role at Lyft as the Head of Autonomous Vehicle Marketing. In both roles, Niki was responsible for leading brand, content, social, creative, recruiting, and product marketing. As an early employee at Lyft, she drove strategic marketing initiatives that propelled the company forward over the course of eight years. 

Niki has shaped her career around being at the forefront of breakthrough technologies, first introducing rideshare, then autonomous transportation, and now autonomous construction equipment to the world. She possesses a unique blend of strategic thinking, creative vision, and technical expertise, which allows her to navigate the complex landscape of emerging technologies.

As Marketing Director, Niki’s ultimate goal is to introduce new technologies that contribute to societal well-being.

 

INVESTORS AND ADVISORS

In addition to funding, Teleo’s investors bring expertise in advanced automotive and construction technologies, as well as in building entrepreneurial companies.

Logo of UP Partners
TRUCKS LOGO
Combinator logo
K9 Ventures logo
F Prime logo
Adam Grosser
Adam Grosser
UP.Partners
Luc Vincent
Luc Vincent
Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor
Brian McClendon
Brian McClendon
Inventor of Google Earth
Kyle Vogt
Kyle Vogt
CEO of Cruise
Trevor Blackwell
Trevor Blackwell
Co-Founder of YC

See for yourself

Find out how Teleo supervised autonomy technology can transform your operations. Schedule a meeting today.

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