Carmel tech firm sues IEDC, others over alleged IP theft

A Carmel-based tech firm and its CEO have filed a lawsuit accusing the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Michael Andretti and a dozen other defendants of appropriating the firm’s technology for their own competing business ventures.

Plaintiffs DynamoEdge Inc. and its CEO, Barbara Bessolo, filed the complaint March 5 in Marion Superior Court. Bessolo makes claims that the defendants cut her and DynamoEdge out of business ventures using a product she developed and actively worked to undermine her.

DynamoEdge describes its core product as one that uses 5G technology to analyze real-time data to anticipate problems before they occur. A vehicle fleet operator, for instance, could use the technology to predict when tire failures will happen, allowing the operator to take proactive steps to prevent the failures.

In addition to Michael Andretti, the suit also names as defendants Indianapolis-based Andretti Autosport Holding Co. LLC; Delaware-based TWG Global LLC, which acquired Andretti Autosport in 2024 and rebranded the company as Andretti Global LLC — which is also named in the lawsuit — in 2025. According to Andretti Global’s website, Michael Andretti launched the entity in the early 2000s and now serves as a strategic adviser to the racing team.

Other defendants include:

• David Roberts, both individually and as the IEDC’s former chief innovation officer, a role he held from July 2017 to December 2022;
• The Odon-based Applied Research Institute, at which Roberts served as CEO from January 2023 until September 2025;
• IEDC contractors 9-12 LLC and the NineTwelve Institute Inc., which are based in Zionsville;
• Sean Hendrix, who was NineTwelve’s chief technology officer from 2020-2022;
• The Indianapolis-based Indy Autonomous Challenge;
• Wejo California Corp. Inc. and Wejo Data Services Inc. The complaint identifies Wejo California Corp., as of 2024, as being based in New York City. It identifies Wejo Data Services as, as of 2024, being based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Both of these entities were subsidiaries of Wejo Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based vehicle data collection and analytics company. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Wejo Group went into administration (similar to bankruptcy) in 2023 and is no longer in operation.
• Palantir Technologies Inc., an Aventura, Florida-based data analytics company.

The complaint also names Indy Autonomous Challenge CEO Paul Mitchell as a defendant, but Mitchell is not mentioned by name in the body of the complaint. The online court docket, mycase.in.gov, does not include Mitchell as among the parties to this case.

IBJ reached out to every defendant for comment. Roberts was the only one to respond, and he declined to comment.

Roberts’ attorney, Paul Jefferson, sent an email response saying, “The lawsuit is based on a fundamental lack of knowledge of the facts.  We are confident in our position, and look forward to educating the plaintiff.  Mr. Roberts performed his duties in alignment with his legal and ethical obligations, and the plaintiff’s claims are wholly misplaced.”

The activities described in the lawsuit span a period of several years, dating back to 2020. The complaint is convoluted, describing a network of parties and their relationship to DynamoEdge and Bessolo.

Bessolo has long been outspoken in her dispute against the defendants, airing her complaints in emails sent to reporters and to some of those named in the complaint. She has also frequently posted about the topic on the social media site X, sometimes making wide-ranging allegations that involve parties not named in the complaint.

Bessolo told IBJ she had hoped that the forensic audit of IEDC that Gov. Mike Braun ordered last year would spur action. At Braun’s direction, Washington, D.C.-based FTI Consulting audited the IEDC and its related entities, including the Applied Research Institute and others.

The 127-page audit report, released in October, included no criminal findings but raised questions about conflicts of interest, particularly at the nonprofit Applied Research Institute.

Bessolo said the audit report corroborated what she had long been saying publicly, but she was disappointed at what she saw as a lack of follow-up once the audit report was released.

“I filed the complaint after no one did anything with the forensic audit,” Bessolo said to IBJ.

The allegations

The activities outlined in the lawsuit trace back to October 2020, when, the complaint alleges, Bessolo and Andretti began talking about forming a company together, rebranding DynamoEdge as AndrettEdge.

“Andretti participated in pitches with various investors, including AT&T, who participated and committed funding based upon the representations, promises and warranties of Andretti’s full cooperation and participation in AndrettEdge,” the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint alleges that Andretti was pursuing a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a SPAC, at the same time he was talking with Bessolo. A SPAC is a shell company formed for the purpose of merging with another company as a means of taking that company public.

The complaint alleges that, in 2024, Andretti launched a “$1 billion AI company” that used DynamoEdge’s technology as well as the marketing slogan “Predicting the Unpredictable,” which DynamoEdge had first used in 2021. The complaint does not name the company.

The complaint acknowledges that there was no written agreement between Andretti and DynamoEdge, but Bessolo told IBJ that “my lawyers and his lawyers were in continuous discussions of forming that entity — until they weren’t.”

The lawsuit also makes similar allegations against the other defendants, accusing them of copying DynamoEdge’s technology and using it for their own ventures while cutting Bessolo and her company out of the loop entirely.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, DynamoEdge did not file for patent protection for its technology until May 27, 2022. The patent was granted Jan. 6 of this year.

According to a document that Bessolo provided to IBJ, Zionsville-based 9-12 LLC and DynamoEdge signed a matching grant agreement in May 2021 that related to AT&T’s plans to demonstrate DynamoEdge’s technology at the Indy Autonomous Challenge — an autonomous race car event that debuted in October of that year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

According to that agreement, AT&T was to have used DynamoEdge’s technology in its demo at the event. The agreement was signed by Bessolo and Sean Hendrix, who at the time was 9-12’s chief technology officer.

Hendrix helped Andretti obtain and copy the plaintiff’s intellectual property, the complaint alleges.

Only a week after DynamoEdge and 9-12 had signed their agreement, the complaint alleges, Roberts entered into a separate investment agreement with Andretti and Wejo on behalf of the IEDC.

The complaint also accuses Roberts, who at the time was at the IEDC, of scuttling DynamoEdge’s existing business relationships with AT&T and technology firm Cisco.

On July 13, Roberts emailed Bessolo ordering her to stop contacting Cisco and telling her that DynamoEdge’s technology was “‘never going to be at IMS,’” the complaint alleges.

A few months later, in September 2021, 9-12 entered into a professional services contract with the IEDC that named 9-12 as a service provider for the Indy Autonomous Challenge, the complaint says.

That same month Hendrix, 9-12’s chief technology officer, canceled the matching grant agreement between 9-12 and DynamoEdge, breaching that contract, the complaint alleges.

Also in September 2021, the IEDC launched a joint transportation project with AT&T and Purdue University using DynamoEdge’s intellectual property, the complaint alleges.

Roberts has also, both individually and in his professional roles, repeatedly slandered and defamed both Bessolo and her company, which discouraged other parties from doing business with DynamoEdge, the complaint alleges.

The complaint also alleges that DynamoEdge entered into an agreement with AT&T in December 2022 that included a three-way nondisclosure agreement with Palantir.

Then, six months later, Palantir went on to launch a product that duplicated DynamoEdge’s technology, the complaint alleges.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to, among other things, award them damages in an unspecified amount; order the defendants to stop using DynamoEdge’s intellectual property, trademarks and technology; and to order an accounting of all IEDC contracts and grants since 2016 that involve Andretti, 9-12, the Applied Research Institute, the Indy Autonomous Challenge and parent organization the Indy Innovation Challenge, and TWG Global.

Marek Mazurek contributed to this report.