co-authored by Natasha Khimji

Welcome to the first edition of Founder’s Corner — where we interview founders of our portfolio companies who are making waves as the leaders of the new internet.

Kicking off with Alex Rawitz from DIMO — read on for more about their vision for the future, and add your vehicle today.

1. CoinFund (CF): Tell us a little bit about DIMO. What’s your one line pitch?

Alex Rawitz (AR): DIMO is an open connected vehicle network that provides 20,000+ drivers and fleets with the best mobility apps and services. We’re breaking the monopoly car manufacturers have on car connectivity.

2. CF: Tell us about the cofounders. Who are they? Where did they come from?

AR: DIMO has four co-founders: Andy Chatham, Alex Rawitz (me), Rob Solomon, and Yevgeny Khessin, who bring unique experience to the table from the automotive, mobility, and web3 worlds. They have worked at companies like Ford, Transdev, Consensys, Vroom, Chainalysis, and more.

3. CF: How do you think AI will impact your business?

AR: AI will make it easier for people to make the right decisions about owning a car, and will allow people to take better advantage of the data generated by the cars they own. AI apps leveraging vehicle data on DIMO will become standard tools drivers and fleets use to be better owners.

4. CF: What can we look forward to from DIMO in the next 6 months?

AR: We’re focused on a few things: 1) expanding the number of people that use DIMO by making the app more accessible to non-crypto users, 2) introducing cheaper new hardware to the market, and 3) bringing developers and partners to the DIMO ecosystem who want to build applications on top of DIMO.

5. CF: Fast forward 5 years. What does your company look like?

AR: DIMO will have millions of connected cars, hundreds or thousands of developers and enterprises using DIMO data, and regardless of the type of driver or fleet, there will be products for everyone. The infrastructure needed to support serving vehicle data, facilitating vehicle transactions, automated applications, and more will be more decentralized than ever before. We’ll be supporting millions of users who don’t necessarily know they’re using web3 technology — they’ll just be using great products.

6. CF: Why web3?

AR: We believe that the infrastructure that supports connected and eventually automated vehicles needs to be open and community owned. Web3 has shown the world that open source software, open governance, and decentralization can create vibrant, stable, and attractive infrastructure to build amazing applications on. DIMO has created an environment where builders and users are able to use shared infrastructure and a common pool of connected vehicles to deliver more compelling products and services at an attractive price. Automotive and mobility technology is so central to our lives and to our interconnected economy that better digital building blocks are a need to have, not a nice to have.

7. CF: For you personally, what has been one of the best moments for DIMO so far?

AR: For four founders who have played with and worked in crypto for almost a decade each, the mainnet launch of $DIMO in December 2022 was our most exciting moment. We have vivid memories of our first transactions, our ups and our downs in the space, and bringing to life our vision and the DIMO network was a culmination of so much work.

8. CF: Who do you want to shout out to as your key partners or customers?

AR: Polygon @0xpolygon — built on polygon, AutoPi @autopi_io — hardware & fleet interface partner, @Global_JDI — Hardware partner, Helium @helium — Connectivity partner, Streamr @streamr — infrastructure partner.

9. CF: Where can we follow your adventures?

AR: To follow DIMO’s future journeys, head over to our website: https://dimo.zone/.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —