Eran Ben-Ari is joining Y Combinator-backed telematics data startup as it moves to scale.
Based in Toronto, supported by Y Combinator Terminal has hired its first chief operating officer (COO) as the telematics startup prepares to move from startup status to scalable status.
Eran Ben-Ari joins the startup after serving since 2021 as director of platforms and later chief operating officer at Toronto-based life sciences giant BenchSci.
Ben-Ari plans to bring his experience managing company growth to Terminal when it reaches an “inflection point” in its trajectory.
Prior to BenchSci, Ben-Ari had extensive experience in the technology industry. He worked as director of product at messaging app Kik after his Israeli company Rounds was acquiredand then moved to product director at Top Hat.
In an interview with BetaKit, Ben-Ari said he plans to share his experience in companies' growth stages when Terminal reaches what he calls an “inflection point” in its trajectory.
“I think this is really one of those situations where the company is pushing its limits in a positive way,” Ben-Ari said.
He added that he plans to focus on helping scale the terminal “the right way,” combining rigorous processes and operations with calibrating go-to-market efforts and research and development.
While at BenchSci, Ben-Ari oversaw the company's efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its drug development platform used by large pharmaceutical companies. The company cut 23 percent of its workforce earlier this year as its CEO signaled he was looking to become a “AI-first company” Product Director Nim Fox also left the company in July.
The terminal that graduated from Y Combinator in 2023, co-founded in 2022 by CEO Raghav Midha and CTO Connor Giles. It offers a universal application programming interface (API) to connect insurance products and fleet software to telematics data such as location and speed. Ben-Ari said Terminal's product, which harmonizes data from multiple sources, solves a “big problem” for insurance and logistics companies managing fleets.
Raghav said that after exiting Y Combinator and raising a seed round, the 13-person startup is focused on improving its product rather than chasing growth. While he didn't share revenue details, Midha said the company has signed up Fortune 500 and publicly traded companies as clients.
Midha said the company is hiring more software engineers to work in its new Toronto office. He added that Terminal considered moving to the US after YC, but ultimately decided to build the company in Toronto.
“We felt like our networks were here,” Midha said. “We wanted to tap into Canada, which has fantastic talent in product development.”
Image courtesy of Terminal.
