Several years ago, Praveen Singh made a bet on Detroit.
The Silicon Valley technology startup he founded decided to market the advanced wireless systems it developed to the automotive industry. As the market for the technology grew, Singh and his small team at Arada Systems Inc., found themselves spending more time on airplanes, flying from California to Detroit and Washington, D.C., for meetings with automakers and federal transportation administrators.
Those cross-country flights brought Singh to the realization that if he wanted his company to be on the radar — to really compete — it needed to be in Michigan, a state with proximity to major automotive suppliers and, he said, an aggressive approach to connected vehicle development. Not just a satellite office. The whole operation.
So in 2012, the Stanford University graduate and longtime California resident pulled up stakes and moved his firm and his family to Arada’s new headquarters in Troy. Soon, he said, the company was working more closely with automakers, tier-one suppliers, university researchers and the Michigan Department of Transportation.
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