MapmyIndia (MMI), a location-based services provider for automotive and other sectors, has made key investments in two startups as it tries to tap into a booming market for car navigation in the country. The New Delhi-based company, which offers advanced digital maps, geospatial software and location-based IoT technologies, has recently invested in mobility startups – PupilMesh and Gtropy – into which it plans to integrate its mapping and other software to expand its product portfolio. While in PupilMesh, MapmyIndia bought a nearly 10% stake for an investment of Rs 50 lakh, in Gtropy, it bought a 76% stake for Rs 12-13 crore.

According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, by 2025 the car navigation segment in India is expected to grow to around $4.2 billion for digital mapping services and $44 billion for navigation and telematics solutions, due to the fact that approximately 3 million new vehicles are sold each year. Additionally, around 280 million existing vehicles are already on the road and around $52 billion will be spent on the company’s digital transformation.

Rohan Verma, CEO and Executive Director of MapmyIndia said Professional Coach that the acquisition of a stake in PupilMesh is due to the fact that it is an augmented reality metaverse technology company. Its flagship product, dubbed Navisor (navigation visor), is a helmet kit that gives the rider turn-by-turn VR guidance and in-helmet safety alerts like a heads-up display. This can help prevent a significant number of crash-related injuries and fatalities because the rider does not need to stare at a handlebar-mounted cell phone, as typically occurs. “People keep phones near the handle, which is dangerous,” Verma said. As part of the natural extension, PupilMesh is developing a similar system for four-wheelers in which the navigation visor can be placed on the windshield itself.

MapmyIndia, for its part, intends to integrate its software-based USP with the solution systems developed by PupilMesh. The size of the market is estimated at 15 million units of two-wheelers and nearly 2.70 million units of four-wheelers sold annually. Verma says the challenge will definitely be reducing its production costs to make it affordable for the average customer, he added. The product is expected to launch within the next two months.

Gtropy, on the other hand, provides GPS-based fleet management and data analysis solutions. At present, the company claims to have over 1 lakh vehicles under its belt with a quarterly growth of 40% and a network of over 350 partners offering a range of solutions in the field of logistics including management logistics operations, passenger transport, fleet management, among others.

Verma explains that the acquisition of Gtropy must be seen in the context of recent developments in the transport and logistics sector where demand is expected to increase exponentially as the government actively strives to reduce logistics costs by 5% , compared to approximately 14% of gross domestic product (GDP) currently. This is being done through the Centre’s Gati Shakti Plan, a national master plan for multimodal connectivity in which 16 ministries will work together on an integrated implementation of the planning and coordination of infrastructure connectivity projects. “A project like this gives us a lot of leeway to grow through IoT and logistics applications,” he adds.

What’s even more likely to drive the company’s penetration, Verma says, is the Center’s regulatory mandate issued last year, which bars foreign mapping entities, such as Google, TomTom, Trimble and others, to conduct ground surveys on vehicles or Street View surveys. . It has also prevented them from acquiring, reselling or reusing granular geospatial data (finer than 1 meter horizontally or 3 meters vertically).

The development therefore confers an advantage on Indian entities such as MapmyIndia, which is considered a dominant local player in the field. “With this, it is obvious that it (the quality of foreign entities’ offerings) may continue to decline and they will probably not be able to create new features, or monitor road construction, road tourism 360 degrees and others, even in on-road and off-road areas,” Verma noted.

According to Verma, the company’s core map offering spans the length and breadth of the country with over 300 million places and addresses, over 400 million geo-referenced images, videos and datasets. value-added location analytics developed over 25 years.

MapmyIndia has started using drones to capture and offer high definition three-dimensional photorealistic data for parts of different Indian cities and using vehicle-mounted cameras and sensors to create and offer highly accurate, true 360 ​​degree high definition maps. . to see. The company’s offerings are independent of geography and are therefore accessible in 200 countries around the world.

As part of its business model, MapmyIndia, which currently generates more than 50% of its annual revenue from the automotive and mobility sector, charges customers royalties, subscriptions and annuities in return for providing licenses and rights to use its IPR-based digital map. data, platforms, APIs and software.

About 90% of its revenue in FY21 came from royalties, annuities and subscription fees. The company counts among its customers some of the major OEMs including MG Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Honda, Ford, TVS, Blu, Suzuki, Hero, BMW, Maruti, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Yulu, AVIS. At the government level, MakemyIndia has worked with the union road transport department to integrate information on accident-prone areas in addition to safety alerts based on ADAS data.

The company’s business model with automotive OEMs, revealed by MapmyIndia leadership during an investor call on Jan. 27, is based on the vehicle models and volumes expected to come preinstalled with its apps. Typically, industry practice is for 3-5 years of use, which may even be longer for some customers. In addition, the price per vehicle also depends on the type of technologies for which the agreement has been concluded.

Additionally, there are recurring revenue streams depending on the feature set or services the OEM takes from MMI. “It’s not just built-in navigation, but a lot of connected vehicle services that we’re providing. So there’s per-vehicle-per-year charging that’s started coming in the last two years. As vehicles start to are only connected within 1-2 years of OEM, charges per vehicle per year will also begin to increase,” company management said on the call to investors.