The Driving Doctor has rebranded as Praiso after securing £500k of private equity funding to accelerate the growth of its driver behaviour coaching app.

aiso (formerly The Driving Doctor) who have secured a Praiso will use the private equity investment of £500k to further enhance take-up of its driver behaviour coaching app.

The investment comes from a group of successful IT and business professionals in the automotive space, and will enable Praiso to enhance its Software-as-a-Service (Saas) model. The soluton operates across all platforms, including desktop computers and mobile devices and uses AI software to turn raw telematics data into a personal digital driver coaching system.

The new investment also brings new shareholders and board members in the business. This include sseveral people responsible for delivering SaaS-based technology in fleet compliance, repair and maintenance sectors.

Nick Walls joins as a non-executive director, and will use his background in the development and leadership of high-growth SaaS businesses in the automotive space.

Jason Fitzgerald joins as commercial director, responsible for the growth of all commercial activities of the business. He brings over 20 years of experience building and leading fleet software sales teams to record growth.

Dominique Marie joins as development director. He previously held senior software development leadership positions in both the telematics sector and fleet/workshop management software, building large-scale SaaS solutions hosting hundreds of thousands of users.

Praiso’s chairman, Laurence Vaughan, who also holds board positions at Sytner PLC and Aston Barclay and serves as chairman at Catapult Ventures and SuperBike Factory, said: “I am delighted the unique proposition and potential of Praiso to provide A.I-derived digital driver education has been recognised, not only with this new investment but by attracting investors with a serious pedigree in the successful development of high-growth SaaS businesses in the automotive market. We are really looking forward to developing our proposition further and providing our customers with market-leading, disruptive solutions and services.”

The rebranding of The Driving Doctor was also vital focus for the new company owners, and the new name has been chosen to better reflect the market proposition and the company’s values.

Commercial director Jason Fitzgerald said: “When building the ecosystem for safe driving, Praiso’s name was the very essence of our thinking. You see, Praiso isn’t just a name to us or our customers; Praiso’s name is an anagram derived from high praise, AI and software. Our intention is that Praiso will become a pillar of safety, sustainability and compliance across the entire automotive industry.”

The Driving Doctor software platform has already won accolades, such as the Brake Fleet Safety award consecutively in 2018 and 2019. Praiso’s customers also report reductions in accident rates and speeding offences, a significant decrease in fuel usage and lower insurance premiums.