Online Auto Software Marketplace SDVerse Off To Fast Start – Forbes

Indicative of the speed of change in the auto industry, just 30 days after SDVerse launched the first online automotive software marketplace it’s fast gaining subscribers and content.

About 300 people watched the live webcast of the September 30 launch event and since then that total grown to at least 1,200, according to Jeff Walker, SDVerse chief commercial officer, who noted, “We’ve had significant customer engagement.”

What does that mean?

“I’m tracking initial customer engagement, further discussions on what it takes to get on the platform,” said Walker during an interview on the sidelines of last week’s Reuters Automotive USA conference in Detroit. “Right now we have 80 people, just since the launch event that I’m engaged with— 80 companies. Those are slowly converting into commercial discussions, and they’ll slowly grow into memberships.”

In all, SDVerse has 14 subscribers, which Walker said is ahead of the platform’s original business plan.

The amount of software content available on the platform has quickly grown as well from 163 items to 202 “and growing, according to Walker.

SDVerse was created, and is financially-backed through a partnership between founding companies General Motors Co. and suppliers Magna International and WiPro, aimed at bringing together car companies and suppliers with software vendors.

It was actually GM that first broached the idea of a digital software marketplace according to SDVerse CEO Prashant Gulati.

“I think they evaluated a lot of approaches to solve this problem of better and different processes for a software supply chain,” explained Gulati in an interview for an earlier story on the creation of SDVerse. “Ultimately, they landed on this concept of a marketplace.”

Revenue comes strictly from memberships, with SDVerse not taking any transaction fees or commissions.

Walker points out the roles each company plays is fluid with automakers and suppliers able to act as both buyers and software sellers.

“We have three people you classically consider buyers. We have Renault, we have Cummins, and we have GM, but everyone on the ecosystem has also said, hey, I like what PopcornSAR, a software supplier out of Korea, I like what they have to offer. Maybe I’ll partner with them, so they might be a buyer,” Walker explained.

That dynamic means at times industry “frenemies” may end up working together, Walker said.

GM plans to start as a buyer but will be “active and committed” to its success as the automaker plays a major role in driving standardization,” said Kristin Toth, leader of GM’s global electrical systems software and connectivity purchasing team during last month’s launch event.

Indeed driving standardization via SDVerse is a key motivation to participate along with competition for software expertise Toth explained, noting, “the demand for common underlying code is absolutely growing, and we need standards and shared solutions as vehicles increasingly resemble consumer electronics. The competition for talent is no doubt intensifying, and we believe creating a software marketplace for embedded systems is essential.”

While GM is the biggest player on the platform with a major financial stake in it, Walker wanted to make it very plain he’s focused on making sure each member is treated fairly with GM not being privy to any discussions between members.

“That it’s just between them and GM doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Walker stressed.

The growing complexity of vehicles is also driving interest in the ease of buying and selling software via SDVerse, noted Joerg Grotendorst, senior vice president, corporate research and development at founding member Magna.

He expects the lines of software code in each vehicle to grow from “hundreds of millions” today to around one billion by 2030—a brisk pace.

The result, he observed during the launch event, is consumer expectations of faster vehicle development.

“They adopt their habits from the mobile phone industry and transfer these expectations to the vehicle,” Grotendorst said. “SDVerse solves these issues by providing a searchable platform and incentivizing comprehensive product descriptions.”

Just a month in, the software drawing the highest interest falls into a few key categories, according to Walker—infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems, mapping, propulsion, electric vehicle management architecture and how humans interact with display screens.

In terms of growth, Walker sees further advanced development in electric vehicle platforms and a move towards high performance compute which adds processing horsepower to zonal computing, which reduces weight, costs, wiring and complexity as part of high performance compute architectures.

Though just 30 days into its life, there are intentions to broaden the offerings on SDVerse at some point.

Software for medium-duty trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles are all on the table for expansion, according to Walker.

Right now, though, he’s concentrating on building SDVerse’s subscription list, especially with automakers, and making progress, revealing, “I don’t want to name names, but I will tell you, there’s over six that I’m in active discussions with right now that are very familiar names to you, that are large in the top 10 of the OEMs in the business.”