November 3 will be a big day for Chris Bartolo. It will be one of those moments that could so easily turn into a life-defining moment – and yet, the ways things have gone in the past four years, it seems certain that there will be many other such turning points.

He will be representing his company, Dazzle Panel, as a beta start-up at the Web Summit in Dublin – representing their designated top 15 per cent of start-ups from around the world.

Mr Bartolo has already paid back all the private investors that helped him turn his student dream into a reality. He has had a number of offers to sell the company and is already working on the next phase of products and projects. Not bad for someone who is only 22.

It all started with an assignment at the University of Malta, where he was reading for a BSc in IT and Artificial Intelligence. It was all about intelligent bus systems and he got to thinking.

Unlike so many of his peers, however, he did not stop there. He started working on software for tracking devices and by October 2011, while he was still at university, he already had several clients who had a small fleet of vehicles – and a few months later, their numbers had grown exponentially.

“At the time I was doing freelance work on content management systems (CMS) for local and international clients. What I thought would be a small side project turned into a fully-fledged business,” he said, adding that he kept the name of his CMS ‘dashboard’ as the company’s name: the Dazzle Panel.

What the company does seems quite straightforward on the face of it: it imports tracking devices, configures them and develops the software and servers to run it. As with most things, the devil is in the detail. In Mr Bartolo’s case, success came from thinking outside the box.

Some clients only need basic information ­– where the vehicles are and if they are on time. Others might want to make sure that the driver is not sleeping in the vehicle with the air conditioning on

“So much software is based on old technologies since developers prefer to stick to the tried and tested. For example, many live systems process forced updates every few seconds. Why not challenge that?

“Also we were catering to Maltese from every sector and every educational background. Even the wording of interfaces is often too technical for most people. We pride ourselves on offering something that everyone can use,” he said.

He recently presented the tracking system to a company in Israel which has its own tracking system and has sold over a million tracking devices over the years.

“They were blown away by it,” he smiled.

The business model is based on software-as-a-service, which means clients save considerably on the upfront cost – which in turn means regular monthly revenue for the company, but a steep capital investment by Dazzle Panel for the devices and set up. However, with clients already at the door, he never had to go to the bank to seek financing and is even now using profits to grow the company.

The devices range from basic ones which report where a vehicle is using GPS or GSM, to ones with functions like monitors for air-conditioning usage, temperature sensors for refrigerated trucks, fuel sensors and even driver behaviour monitoring.

“Another thing is that normal tracking devices just update every few seconds and stop there. Our systems are more efficient and faster because we also do ‘events’. We know if you have an accident, if the driver stops, accelerates or turns suddenly, if he overspeeds...” he explained.

“It is all about awareness of fuel use as well as about punctuality. Some clients only need basic information ­– where the vehicles are and if they are on time. Others might want to make sure that the driver is not sleeping in the vehicle with the air conditioning on... These are all extra costs.”

At 22, Chris Bartolo has already paid back all the private investors that helped him turn his student dream into a reality.At 22, Chris Bartolo has already paid back all the private investors that helped him turn his student dream into a reality.

We were catering to Maltese from every sector and every educational background. Even the wording of interfaces is often too technical for most people. We pride ourselves on offering something that everyone can use

The companies choose what level of information is relevant – but tracking is not about checking up on your staff. It is also about reducing operational costs – and these can be reduced by as much as 25 per cent or more.

Dazzle Panel now provides tracking services to everything from taxis and delivery vans to coaches and school transport but you would never know it to pass by the main office, just round the corner from the Sliema police station. Mr Bartolo is the only person in there at the time of the interview, dramatic proof of how IT has changed office life.

“We are not a big team but we can all work just as easily from home as from here! It is much easier than trying to find parking. And after all, everything they do is also tracked,” he laughed.

“My phone is always by my side. And we have developed it in such a way that we can test and fix any problems on our phones, too.”

The problem with such a meteoric rise is knowing when to stop, when to sell out, when to expand. He is clearly in no hurry, preferring to help his company reach its full potential. He will be graduating next month, having completed a masters at the University of Hertfordshire by correspondence. And the company already has a number of innovative projects to launch next year.

And, of course, there is the Web Summit in Dublin – “the best technology conference on the planet” – and the chance to mingle with 22,000 attendees from more than 100 countries.

One things seems certain: he plans to dazzle them.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.