MapmyIndia was founded by Rakesh and Rashmi Verma in 1995.[4] The couple launched a startup called CE Info Systems in 1995 at
New Delhi, India.[5][6] The company started working upon developing a
web mapping technology and provide products and services required for enhancing marketing and logistics efficiency in existing organizations in the country.[7] Soon after, the company took up an assignment to develop good quality maps with detailed topography to support the marketing and logistics operations of
Coca-Cola and
Cellular One.[8]
The company launched the first Indian interactive digital mapping portal "www.mapmyindia.com" in 2004.[9] This portal provided free, customized,
location-based services including assigning an e-location to existing addresses to enable last mile deliveries to their exact destinations. The services were available for mobile phones with internet connectivity also. These services were also provided through the MapmyIndia portal to
MagicBricks.[10]
In 2010, MapmyIndia launched a
GPS navigation service called Road Pilot, preloaded with Indian cities, villages and destinations.[11] The company's online maps are integrated with
ISRO Satellite Imagery for detailed satellite and hybrid.[12]
In 2014, MapmyIndia launched a voice-navigation app called NaviMaps, that supported various languages spoken in India, including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.[13]
In 2020, MapmyIndia launched a COVID-19 dashboard.[14]
MapmyIndia won the
Government of India's AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge for its consumer app, Move.[15]
Product and services
MapmyIndia offers
Navigation, Tracking,
IoT, Analytics and
web mapping service for desktop and mobile devices.[5][16] The company also offers advanced
GPS tracking devices, car in-dash infotainment & plug & play on-board diagnostics car tracker.[17][18] The navigation service features street view, public transit information and turn-by-turn navigation with spoken instructions for vehicles. It later launched offline navigation app, Navimaps that uses offline vector data to offer 3D terrains and city models and 3D building for in-car infotainment systems.[19][20][21]
Market share
The company's navigation and location services are primarily used by vehicle manufacturers (cars, bikes, commercial vehicles, electric vehicles) and it has 95% market share on
GPS navigation in India.[22][4] It also claims to have 5,000 enterprise customers with 80% market share in the location intelligence space.[23][24] MapmyIndia's cloud mapping services are also used by many developers and tech companies in India such as
PhonePe,
Paytm,
Amazon,
Alexa voice,
Flipkart,
Uber,
Ola Cabs,
Blinkit, etc. for planning, operations and customer experience.[25]
Funding
MapmyIndia has raised $34 million in venture capital financing in the three rounds since 2007 from the Lightbox Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners,[26] Qualcomm Ventures and Zenrin.[27] In 2015,
Flipkart announced that it has acquired 34% stake of the company for Rs 1,600 crores and provided a successful exit to MapmyIndia's early investors.[28]