University of Oulu spin-out Indoor Atlas, which has commercialised indoor mapping technology, has received €500k from venture firm Mobility Ventures.
The firm, based in both Oulu and Oxford, UK, utilises magnetic anomalies inside buildings and smartphones to accurately pinpoint a user’s position inside of a structure, allowing Indoor Atlas’ navigation services to penetrate areas which GPS cannot.
It’s the second round of funding this year for the firm, which was founded in 2012. The firm closed a round of the same size, €500k, from a number of investors in January.
Indoor Atlas’ Founder chief executive Janne Haverinen, Ph.D., states, “Moving consumers from point A to point B can be a challenge in itself as GPS requires satellite line of sight and doesn’t work indoors. Indoor Atlas employs the smartphone’s built-in magnetic field sensor; magnetic signatures are collected inside buildings. These signatures displayed unique patterns which Indoor Atlas analyzes resulting in an indoor navigation positioning and navigation solution that radically improves navigation capabilities in environments where GPS and Wi-Fi systems are unavailable.”
