Spartan Radar, a leader in radar software and hardware, announced the appointment of automotive and transportation industry veteran Blake Gasca as CEO. Gasca co-founded Spartan along with Nathan Mintz, Tyler Rather and Dr. Theagenis Abatzoglou in 2020. Since then, he has served as the CRO and General Manager of Partnerships, scaling the company’s transformative automotive safety products across multiple industries.
Prior to co-founding Spartan, Gasca has spent the last two decades in successful startups in the transportation technology space; last serving as VP at SmartDrive Systems, specializing in video telematics and on-highway data via imagery. The company was acquired by Omnitracs for $450 million in 2020. He previously founded and exited two startups in the fleet telematics space focused on video intelligence and analytics. Gasca was the co-founder and CEO of MuHu Inc., a visual intelligence (Computer Vision) company that was acquired in 2018. He also served as the Co-founder and CEO of Convoy Technologies, an industry leader in video-based safety systems for commercial vehicles, that was acquired in 2016 by a Japanese technology conglomerate, DC Asia LTD.
“It’s an honor to be working with the brightest minds from both the automotive and defense-aerospace sectors to improve the way vehicles see the world. The markets we’re focused on at Spartan cannot rely on vision-based systems alone due to the environmental conditions in which they operate in. With very few companies out there who understand radar the way we do, Spartan sees an opportunity to improve safety through the fusion of camera and radar,” said Gasca. “Spartan remains focused on delivering the most robust and reliable sensors on the market, and I’m excited to lead the Spartan team as we work to make numerous industries like mining, construction, and delivery safer for everyone.”
“Blake has been critical to Spartan’s business development and product roadmap since its founding,” said Spartan Co-founder and Board Chairman Nathan Mintz. “His two decades of experience across the automotive and transportation industries are invaluable as we work to provide drivers and operators with reliable blind spot monitoring and save lives.”
Gasca assumes the CEO role previously held by Dr. Matt Markel who stepped down as CEO last week. Under his leadership, Spartan made great advancements in maturing the technology, products, and go-to-market strategies. However, due to changing market conditions and a strategy pivot, both parties decided to part ways.
Gasca will focus on commercializing Spartan’s breakthrough safety product, Hoplo. Hoplo is an advanced collision warning solution designed to improve commercial vehicle safety. Unlike other radar systems on the market, Hoplo provides drivers with true situational awareness by seeing and reporting multiple objects in its intuitive and informational display. Enhanced with Spartan’s software, Hoplo ensures reliable detections and reduces nuisance alerts, which gives drivers the confidence to rely on the safety system.
SOURCE: PRNewswire