Ola partners with MapmyIndia for better navigation
Ola announced its partnership with MapmyIndia by acquiring a multi-year licence. Ola co-founder Ankit Bhati said that through this "first-of-its-kind" partnership, Ola will get complete access to mapping data from MapmyIndia. Geo-information is at the core of Ola's mobility's business and had invested in it considerably since inception. Ola said it will also build location algorithms over and above mapping data from MapmyIndia.
Ola mines billions of location data points from ride requests and fulfillment on its platform, enabling product innovations like real-time location updates. Olacabs makes use of booking information to predict taxi demand ahead of time, and sends more drivers to areas expecting bookings so as to respond to online bookings sooner. Ola also has its own mapping layer, available in local dialects for drivers.
Ola relies on maps from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. to track the movement of cabs on its technology platform.
Ola aims to deliver a cab within 15 minutes from the time of booking. With the Ola app customers can book the nearest Olacab and track its movement. It provides instant confirmation along with details like driver's name, vehicle number, etc,. It also tracks and shows the real time movement of cab from its location to the location of the customer on a map.
Owned by CE Info Systems, MapmyIndia provides services that include digital map data, Navigation, Tracking, and GPS & GIS based systems integration services. Established in 1992 by Rakesh Verma and Rashmi Verma, as an IT services provider, the company ventured into the GIS arena in 1994. MapmyIndia today has IP ownership for the most comprehensive, accurate and updated digital map data of India.
MapmyIndia has raised around $30 million in funding from venture capital investors like Lightbox Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures besides Japanese mapping company Zenrin.
In the space of geo-location services, Uber announced its partnership with Dutch navigation company TomTom NV to fortify its mapping capabilities. It has partnered with Indian startup Safetipin to collect data on neighbourhood safety.
