New entity acquires GeoLock technology, pursuing new opportunities
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another is a series of articles providing updates on start-ups previously profiled on teknovation.biz.)
By Tom Ballard, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C.
The new year brings with it a new company that is focused on taking the patented GeoLok® security system developed locally to the next level.
TrakLok Corporation developed the GeoLok® product as a next generation, integrated system for intermodal container security that combined locking with monitoring, tracking and reporting. It built on the company’s work over a number of years in developing and selling security systems for the chemical, electronics, and radiological industries.
In a recent interview, Tom Mann told us that TrakLok International, LLC, a new entity, has purchased the intellectual property for the GeoLok® system from TrakLok Corporation. Mann served as Chief Executive Officer of TrakLok Corporation and now serves as Vice President of the new LLC.
The new company will place more focus on over the road trailers and reefers while continuing its work on intermodal containers.
“My goal is to get the successor company on solid footing,” he said. That means an even tighter focus on the next generation product with further enhancements forthcoming.
“We have also changed our distribution model to focus on SSI – Security System Integration companies – instead of the direct selling model of TrakLok Corporation”
Mann said that 20 percent of the customer base for the GeoLok® is international, but TrakLok’s largest customers are domestic. Although these largest customers are domestic, many of their shipments are global in nature.
“We provide the greatest return to long haul shippers,” Mann said, explaining that these are shipments that are anywhere from two to five days for domestic shipments and two to four weeks for international shipments.
“The GeoLok® system is half the cost and half the weight of its predecessor, making it much easier to use,” he added. “It also has three times the operating range.”
As far as product enhancements, Mann said the new entity is working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to enhance security on existing approaches to high risk shipments.
“ORNL’s goal is to bring a more integrated solution to cargo security” he said. “Most cargo security solutions are islands of technology that do not perform as an integrated system.”
Another emerging market involves remote locations such as construction sites, oil and gas drilling rigs, and production sites. In these instances, TrakLok combines its GeoLok® product with its TrakLok® web portal that alerts customers when a pre-determined incident occurs.
“We have had opportunities to come-up with security for these remote sites,” Mann says. “They are typically construction sites that have concerns such as copper or tooling theft.”
Mann is a serial entrepreneur with a background in medical devices. He and his family chose to relocate to Knoxville several years ago, as we noted in a teknovation.biz article.
