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Mobile phone detection technology company Acusensus (ASX: ACE) has entered the South Australian market for the first time following the announcement of a five-year agreement worth $5 million.
The deal builds on the Melbourne-based company’s existing operations in NSW, Queensland and the ACT where it oversees the installation and management of fixed cameras to detect motorists using mobile phones and, in Queensland, the incorrect usage of seat belts.
The contract with the South Australian Government is the seventh major multi-service agreement for Acusensus which also has a mobile phone and seat belt detection program in the US state of North Carolina.
It also comes on the heels of Acusensus announcing in November that it has extended its NSW mobile phone detection contract by another year to November 2024, with that deal worth an additional $4.5 million.
The company says the new contract in South Australia will lead to half of Australia’s states and territories using its AI-enabled technology to address distracted driving.
The staged rollout in South Australia will begin in April this year.
“We are very pleased to be bringing life-saving enforcement technology to South Australian roads and to be working with the South Australian Government,” says the CEO and founder of Acusensus, Alex Jannink who won the Trailblazer and Technology categories of the 2023 Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
“After pioneering mobile phone and seatbelt enforcement, I am particularly pleased that Australian jurisdictions have embraced the adoption of these new behaviour-change programs such that Acusensus is now supplying programs to half of the Australian jurisdictions.
“This is Acusensus’ seventh multi-year enforcement contract and builds upon the success that Acusensus has had in rolling out programs in Australia in furtherance of our road safety growth strategy.”
Apart from monitoring mobile phone and seatbelt use by drivers, the Acusensus technology is also capable of detecting speeding, railway crossing compliance and the monitoring of vehicles of interest.
The take-up of the technology led to a 46.6 per cent increase in revenue to $42 million for Acusensus in FY23 in the company’s first earnings report since listing on the ASX in January last year.
The statutory net profit after tax of $100,000 was well ahead of the prospectus forecast of a $1.4 million loss.
Jannink, who founded the company in 2018, says the US remains a key area of growth for the company after establishing its first ongoing enforcement program for mobile phone and seatbelt use by commercial vehicles in North Carolina.
The company is also testing its technology in pilot programs in the UK and engaging with other jurisdictions in western Europe.
Shares in Acusensus were up 5.5c, or 6.5 per cent, to 90c at 10.42am (AEDT).
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