Saphe – Intelligent traffic systems for cars
The Danish technology company Saphe shows that offering subscription services with smart data can help expand a business and beat the competition.
Need
Subscription Management & Payment Gateway
Region
Denmark
Industry
SaaS & Tech
Paving the way with subscription services
Saphe collaborated with the payment and subscription management company Frisbii, which had the technology and expertise in subscription business that Saphe’s restructuring required.
Back in 2020, no employees or retailers believed in the subscription model. Retailers lacked experience in selling subscription products, and consumers had not shown interest in it either.
Despite all this, in the spring of 2020, Saphe chose to develop an advanced subscription-based traffic alert, which appears on the car’s built-in screen and warns the driver when approaching a new speed limit or driving too fast.
Every year the speed limit is changed by approximately 10 % of all roads according to location data and technology company HERE, so a real-time information system can increase driving safety.
“In Aalborg, for example, the speed limit changes in many places range from 60 km/h to 50 km/h, so it doesn’t take much to drive 30 % faster than the speed limit. In Denmark, we also generally have few road signs, whereas EU studies show that displaying speed limits makes a difference,” says Freddy Sørensen.
“The biggest challenge of scaling a subscription business to other countries is the payment management. For example, many consumers in Germany do not have a payment card, but use SEPA or PayPal. We have to adapt to that.
Frisbii supports SEPA and PayPal for recurring payments, which helps us significantly to scale our growth on the German market.”
Freddy Sørensen
Saphe CEO
A risky business investment pays off
The development of new technology and the transition to becoming a subscription business has required large investments in developers. Therefore, the journey has not been painless. For a while, Saphe wrote red figures but two years after launching their subscription model, Saphe now boasts 200,000 subscribers and counts an average growth of over 10,000 subscriptions (net) per month.
According to Freddy Sørensen, 2024 will be the year of a turnaround to see a plus on the bottom line and reap the fruits of their investments and labour.
Saphe expands to Europe
Saphe’s ambitions also extend beyond Denmark’s borders. Currently, they are in the process of expanding abroad, including England and Germany.
To make sure, the data is also as accurate as possible in Germany, where Saphe is offering their subscription services since May 2023, the company has entered into a data agreement with one of the largest German traffic apps, Blitzer.
“We have always known that at some point we would have to expand into new markets, and in Germany alone there are approx. 50 million cars, so it’s a huge market for us. But there are also challenges associated with expanding, which is why the choice of partner has been crucial.
From the start, we have chosen to build our solution with the subscription company Frisbii because it has roots in Denmark and Germany but also provides global expertise and payment solutions that can be scaled across national borders,” Freddy Sørensen says.
“The biggest challenge of scaling a subscription business to other countries is the payment management. For example, many consumers in Germany do not have a payment card, but use SEPA or PayPal. We have to adapt to that.
Frisbii supports SEPA and PayPal for recurring payments, which helps us significantly to scale our growth on the German market.”
“In England, the potential is also great with approx. 39 million cars and payment preferences that are a bit easier to adapt to because more English people pay by card.
We already partner with large chain stores such as Halfords, but awareness is still very low, so we have both a great challenge and opportunity ahead of us. However, we believe that we have a strong position and can succeed because we go to the market with product of higher quality than many of the solutions available today.”