HERE Technologies buys indoor maps provider Micello

HERE Technologies is buying indoor mapping company Micello in an effort to bolster its suite of location and tracking services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Micello provides indoor map data to companies and offers a platform on which venue owners and developers can build, edit, and publish maps for large indoor spaces.

HERE plans to merge Micello's technology with its existing indoor mapping systems and offer it all in combination with its recently launched asset tracking service. HERE Tracking is built on the company's Open Location Platform, and is designed to work indoors and outdoors and integrate with enterprise resource planning systems and other supply chain touch points.

"In combination with HERE's unique tracking technologies, indoor maps will enable new and innovative market solutions such as the tracking of parts on a factory floor, the optimization of workspace usage, indoor wayfinding at complex transit interchanges, and last mile guidance in vehicles," the company said in a press release.

For HERE, which was spun out of Nokia, the combination of mapping and the enterprise has been a focus from day one, but the company is now homing in on the growth of highly precise, location-aware applications for large indoor spaces.

HERE said indoor maps of buildings such as corporate campuses, shopping malls, airports, museums, convention centers, hospitals, train stations and stadiums have become a key area of growth and major differentiator for digital mapping providers.

"The acquisition of Micello is an important strategic investment for us to rapidly grow our ecosystem of partners and accelerate our growth in indoor mapping," said Leon van de Pas, SVP of Internet of Things at HERE Technologies.

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