Calgary spin-out positioned for $36m

Trusted Positioning, a geomatics spin-out of Calgary University, has been acquired by US-based sensor technology company InvenSense for $36m.

The company, spun out of the university’s Department of Geomatics Engineering in 2009, has developed technology that allows location services without the need for GPS. Instead it relies on existing components in smartphones and wearables, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and pressure sensors to calculate a user’s location.

InvenSense will keep the company in Calgary so that it may continue to access the pioneering research into geomatics conducted at the university. It will function as a research and development centre.

The university held shares in the spin-out, and will use the revenue gained from the acquisition to reinvest in more spin-outs.

Naser El-Sheiny, co-founder and professor at the department, said: “It is definitely groundbreaking. We were the first company to develop navigation software for indoors specifically based on Mems sensors.”