Munich-based high-tech startup NavVis has raised EUR7.5 million in growth capital in a new Series B financing round led by venture capital firm Target Partners with participation from existing investors MIG Fonds and BayBG Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft, as well as new investor Don Dodge, Developer Evangelist at Google.
Founded in 2013, NavVis develops innovative products and applications for centimetre-accurate 3D mapping, viewing and navigation of indoor spaces. The new funds will be used to ramp up production, expand sales activities in Germany and other major global markets, such as China, Japan, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the USA, and to further develop NavVis’s unique technology.
NavVis’s customers are high profile international companies from the automotive, insurance, retail, transportation and logistics sectors. “Our technology is aimed at a global market that is worth billions,” says Felix Reinshagen, NavVis co-founder and CEO. “Up to this point, hardly any indoor spaces, such as factories, office buildings, event venues, shopping centres or trade fair halls, have been digitally captured.”
With the patent-pending 3D mapping trolley from NavVis, a mobile scanner equipped with lasers and cameras, the entire shipping exhibition of the Deutsches Museum in Munich was mapped in 3D in less than one hour and then made available online via the NavVis platform (www.deutsches-museum.de/rundgang). The museum retains ownership of its data. The next stage of the NavVis technology will enable visual navigation of already mapped buildings via a smartphone, without the need for any additional infrastructure such as Wi-Fi, or GPS. The corresponding smartphone app is due to go live soon. In the future, NavVis will also serve as a platform for many location-based services in buildings, from logistics, repairs and maintenance work through to facility management and seamless navigation.
“The NavVis technology is easy to use, significantly faster than existing technologies and up to a hundred times more affordable,” says Kurt Müller, Partner at new investor Target Partners. “We are excited to be investing in a top-notch team that has developed the first end-to-end solution for 3D indoor mapping and navigation.”
Dodge says: “I am excited about investing in NavVis. NavVis is like Google StreetView in 3D for indoors, and will enable hundreds of new applications and businesses. NavVis Indoor location and mapping will have a bigger impact than maps or GPS.”
Georg Schroth, Sebastian Hilsenbeck and Robert Huitl came up with the idea for NavVis while carrying out research in the fields of robotics, computer vision and machine learning at the Technical University of Munich. Felix Reinshagen, who holds a PhD in economics and worked at McKinsey for nearly a decade joined the team by way of a joint consultancy project. In 2013, the four founded NavVis GmbH; this was followed by the first round of financing in 2014. Over the past year, NavVis has experienced rapid growth, expanding from 20 employees to 60 today.Munich-based high-tech startup NavVis has raised EUR7.5 million in growth capital in a new Series B financing round led by venture capital firm Target Partners with participation from existing investors MIG Fonds and BayBG Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft, as well as new investor Don Dodge, Developer Evangelist at Google.
Founded in 2013, NavVis develops innovative products and applications for centimetre-accurate 3D mapping, viewing and navigation of indoor spaces. The new funds will be used to ramp up production, expand sales activities in Germany and other major global markets, such as China, Japan, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the USA, and to further develop NavVis’s unique technology.
NavVis’s customers are high profile international companies from the automotive, insurance, retail, transportation and logistics sectors. “Our technology is aimed at a global market that is worth billions,” says Felix Reinshagen, NavVis co-founder and CEO. “Up to this point, hardly any indoor spaces, such as factories, office buildings, event venues, shopping centres or trade fair halls, have been digitally captured.”
With the patent-pending 3D mapping trolley from NavVis, a mobile scanner equipped with lasers and cameras, the entire shipping exhibition of the Deutsches Museum in Munich was mapped in 3D in less than one hour and then made available online via the NavVis platform (www.deutsches-museum.de/rundgang). The museum retains ownership of its data. The next stage of the NavVis technology will enable visual navigation of already mapped buildings via a smartphone, without the need for any additional infrastructure such as Wi-Fi, or GPS. The corresponding smartphone app is due to go live soon. In the future, NavVis will also serve as a platform for many location-based services in buildings, from logistics, repairs and maintenance work through to facility management and seamless navigation.
“The NavVis technology is easy to use, significantly faster than existing technologies and up to a hundred times more affordable,” says Kurt Müller, Partner at new investor Target Partners. “We are excited to be investing in a top-notch team that has developed the first end-to-end solution for 3D indoor mapping and navigation.”
Dodge says: “I am excited about investing in NavVis. NavVis is like Google StreetView in 3D for indoors, and will enable hundreds of new applications and businesses. NavVis Indoor location and mapping will have a bigger impact than maps or GPS.”
Georg Schroth, Sebastian Hilsenbeck and Robert Huitl came up with the idea for NavVis while carrying out research in the fields of robotics, computer vision and machine learning at the Technical University of Munich. Felix Reinshagen, who holds a PhD in economics and worked at McKinsey for nearly a decade joined the team by way of a joint consultancy project. In 2013, the four founded NavVis GmbH; this was followed by the first round of financing in 2014. Over the past year, NavVis has experienced rapid growth, expanding from 20 employees to 60 today.
