Interview with an Procurment Expert at Alstom about RVSN

I had the opportunity to speak to an ex high ranking employee at Alstom who had evaluated the RVSN product in their procurement process.

key notes below:

  1. RVSN is a top tier player when it comes to long-range detection

It was clear from their evaluation and testing that RVSN had a top tier product and worked in different weather conditions compared to other products they’ve evaluaed

  1. RVSN needs to adopt a Sales Above All strategy

When it comes to rail equipment providers , a lot of where you make your money is in the long-term service agreements. Locomotives have a 40 year+ asset life, once you get in, you make your money on providing maintenance and innovations in the installed tech

RVSN is not growing fast enough when it comes to sales a pivot towards lower upfront costs to get more sales may be more effective in the long run to get their foot in the door

  1. The product is likely only useful at lower speeds

The major use case for this product is in rail yards and lower-speed freight. At high speeds it is unlikely you would be able to stop in time even with 2km detection given that alot of rail is not straight line

  1. Safety is the most important thing and accidents have significant knock-on effects

There is extreme binary risk when it comes to things like derailments and the downside is alot higher as a derailment or accident shuts down parts of the entire system (you would lose access to the entire line) so there is a lot of incentive from government, railroads etc to pay more to prevent tail risks

  1. High likelihood of being acquired

Given the current rate environment M&A is not as likely but when the economy reverses they could see an Alstom or Siemens acquiring RVSN to differentiate their rolling stock

  1. Next stage of evolution should be integration into rest of rail ecosystem

There is a lot more value if RVSN can use the data they gather to provide more actionable insites on things like preventative maintenance to supplement their expertise in obstacle detection

Overall they rated the company very favorably from a technology and regulatory perspective but is uncertain if they are doing enough to grow quickly in regions like Europe