holoride reloaded: Infotainment pioneer repositions itself
Successful restructuring and reorganization open opportunities for an expanded product portfolio and accelerated expansion.
)
holoride, a pioneering leader in automotive infotainment, announces its strategic repositioning following a successful restructuring. All intellectual property of the former holoride GmbH has been transferred to the newly established Holoride Technologies Group Pte. Ltd., headquartered in Singapore, and the core team transitioned to the subsidiary holoride technologies Europe GmbH, based in Munich, Germany. As part of the new group, holoride AG, based in Vaduz, Principality of Liechtenstein, will expand its focus: in addition to integrating blockchain technology into the holoride infotainment ecosystem, it will develop Web3 services for the broader mobility industry.
The new group’s founders and shareholders include long-time holoride investors Jing Jing Xu and Tony Chen, alongside holoride founder and CEO Nils Wollny. Together, they form the board of the new holding company, with Nils Wollny taking the role of Group CEO. Together, the three founders bring extensive experience from the automotive and tech sectors, with their knowledge spanning the Chinese and Western economic regions alike.
Based on real-time vehicle data, holoride enables motion and location-synchronized experiences and applications on passengers' personal devices – while at the same time reducing the widespread discomfort that often occurs when consuming visual content in moving vehicles.
A significant difference from the previous offerings is holoride’s new business model. Focusing on the B2B market, holoride will license its groundbreaking technology to industrial customers in the mobility, tech, entertainment, and tourism sectors. Customers can develop and market individual, brand-compliant solutions for their clientele, with holoride serving as a general contractor or system integrator, providing turnkey solutions if needed.
Before the restructuring, the holoride team had already realigned the product portfolio. In early 2025, a comprehensive software suite will be launched supporting the existing virtual reality formats in moving vehicles and adding smartphones, tablets, and augmented and mixed reality glasses. Besides enabling more devices, the company is scaling up the “holoride-ready” vehicle fleet by integrating its proprietary vehicle localization solution into leading infotainment operating systems or via a retrofit solution.
With its headquarters in Singapore, the new structure facilitates easier access to Asian markets for holoride. While holoride technologies Europe GmbH will continue to develop all components of the holoride technology platform and manage sales and customer and partner support in the European economic area, a planned branch in China will handle sales in one of the most vital automotive growth regions. A development department for local solutions in China is also planned in the medium term. holoride’s previously existing commercial partnerships are expected to continue largely unchanged under the new group.
We are proud to have implemented holoride's repositioning so quickly during this challenging time. With our new business model for industrial customers, the integration of all personal devices, and our focus on Asian growth markets, we are confident that we can quickly achieve a leading position in the infotainment market with our unique technology stack. The technological foundation for this is already in place.
With this restructuring and repositioning, holoride reaffirms its commitment to revolutionizing the automotive infotainment industry. According to a study by the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman, in-car infotainment solutions increasingly influence brand loyalty. In Europe and the US, 30 to 40 percent of consumers are willing to switch car manufacturers for a superior infotainment experience, and this figure rises to 80 percent in China. However, current offerings often fall short of expectations, as consistently reported by J.D. Power in their US consumer report.
About holoride
holoride merges advanced technology, including spatial computing and artificial intelligence, with real-time data from moving vehicles to create a unique passenger experience. Providing partners with a comprehensive software suite to develop and deploy individual, value-adding applications for their passengers, holoride transforms idle transit time into a relevant commercial opportunity. The impact of holoride is further enhanced by the RIDE token, which enriches the content ecosystem with customizable and user-authored experiences.
In 2021, holoride received the prestigious Best in Show award at SXSW Pitch after winning in the Entertainment, Gaming & Content category. The company is also a 2023 CES Innovation Awards Honoree and received “Best of CES 2019” honors from Tom’s Guide, CNET, and SlashGear. Additionally, holoride was named one of the “100 Best Inventions of 2019” by TIME Magazine and one of the “100 Most Consumer-Centric Companies of 2022” by Forbes.
About Jing Jing Xu:
Jing Jing Xu is a distinguished expert in technology investments, business development, and cross-border ventures. She is a Partner at Fuel Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital fund in the UK, known for investing in rapidly growing technology companies. Jing founded Fuel Ventures Asia, facilitating the entry of select portfolio companies into the Asian market. She leads Fuel Ventures' international investments, business development, fundraising, and investor relations, securing funding from Zhong Guan Cun, China’s Silicon Valley. Jing was honored as a "Venture Capital New Star" by Hurun Report in 2018 and is the only Asian female VC Partner recognized as a Top Asian Star in the UK tech sector for four consecutive years (2021-2024).
About Tony Chen:
Tony Chen is a former Wall Street investment banker and successful serial entrepreneur. He helped found Farasis, one of China’s largest pouch cell electric vehicle battery start-ups, which is publicly listed in China and includes Mercedes-Benz as a shareholder. Tony is also a co-founder of Ecarx, a Nasdaq-listed infotainment and chipset company. He has deep connections with leading Chinese car manufacturers and is actively participating in seeding investments in the automotive and mobility sector, particularly in electric drivetrains, chipsets, and software engineering.
About Nils Wollny:
Nils Wollny has extensive experience in strategy, digital business, and innovation. He was the Managing Director at one of Europe’s leading digital agencies before joining Audi as Head of Digital Business, where he oversaw digital services and platforms. Nils is passionate about mobility and media, earning recognition such as “Rising Star” by Automotive News Europe in 2020, and being listed among the “40 under 40” high-potential managers by the German publication “Automobilwoche” in 2018. He co-founded holoride in 2018, a startup pioneering the next generation of in-car experiences, and has been serving as its CEO since February, 2019.