CHARLOTTE – You’ve most likely heard about the Internet of Things. Well, what about the Location of Things? It’s an emerging market and MapAnything, a Charlotte startup, is looking to lead the way.
With a $42.5 million Series C investment, MapAnything plans to expand the reach of its Location-of-Things (LoT) platform to help enterprises automate complex business processes based on location data.
MapAnything
The round included an initial investment from GM Ventures, and additional participation from existing investors Greycroft, Salesforce Ventures, and Harbert Growth Fund, as well as two individual investors, David Stern and Andrew Leto. Leto will join the Board of Directors.
MapAnything anticipates significant growth in the Location-of-Things market, based on data from Grand View Research Inc. that predicts an industry figure as high as $71.6 billion by 2025 with a compound annual growth rate of more than 34 percent due to growth by the increasing demands of customers within the on-demand services economy.
“Location-of-Things (LoT) data is an essential component of growth and customer satisfaction for field-based sales and services organizations,” said John Stewart, the company’s co-founder and CEO, in a blog post.
MapAnything, founded in 2009 by Stewart and co-founder Ben Brantly, is described by the company as a location services company for Salesforce data with a mission to become the world’s leading business platform for “where” software and has grown to be one of Charlotte’s success stories, part of why the Queen City was recently named the #1 tech town by CompTIA. According to Stewart, more than two million travel routes have been navigated using their Location-of-Things platform, with more than 100,000 mobile workers at more than 2,000 companies globally using MapAnything’s solutions.
“In a world where everyone and everything is connected, location-based insights open up entirely new opportunities to transform the customer experience,” said Mike Rosenbaum, EVP of Product at Salesforce. “We’re excited about the continued impact MapAnything’s location-based solutions, combined with the world’s #1 CRM, will deliver for customers.”
Poised for further growth with the $42.5 million Series C round, MapAnything expects to dovetail their solutions with GM’s commercial growth strategy. According to a statement issued by MapAnything, GM’s sales have grown by more than seven percent on average each year since 2012, with more than 11 million vehicles that have built-in 4GLTE wireless hotspots.
An example of MapAnything technology at work.
“We have seen firsthand how the most sophisticated fleet managers in the world rely on connectivity to optimize their investments in vehicles and people, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible using sophisticated tools like MapAnything,” said Ed Peper, vice president of GM Fleet, in a statement.
Companies of all types are expected to begin to use location data as a competitive advantage, according to Stewart.
“Our territories are getting optimized simply because of our visibility into what’s there is increasing,” said Les Reed, director of quick lube sales at Valvoline. “It’s made us much more efficient.” Valvoline has achieved a 60 percent increase in sales effectiveness, said Stewart. According to Stewart, clients self-report a 25 percent increase in customer interactions on average.
Stewart is excited about the future of the Location-of-Things market. An analysis by Markets and Markets projects the total value of the LoT market to be $27 billion by 2022, and Stewart expects to drive the market. “This infusion of resources will allow us to expand our technology leadership,” said Stewart.
