To reduce foreign dependency, use indigenous maps, urges MapmyIndia CEO Rohan Verma

Rohan Verma, CEO and Executive Director of Indian mapping startup MapmyIndia has urged everyone to be Aatmanirbhar, and use Indian maps and navigation systems. He tweeted -

MapmyIndia's Mappls Super is the consumer app and portal for maps, navigation, tracking, safety, local services and more (previously called MapmyIndia Move). This app had won Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge in the Others category for its unique indigenous solution for ensuring hyperlocal discovery.

The team has referred to Mappls as "The world's most advanced digital maps, geospatial software and location-based IoT technologies, providing products, platforms, APIs and solutions."

MapmyIndia Founders Rakesh Verma and Rashmi Verma took a big gamble to put maps online. When their business was started as CE Infosystems in 1995, India did not have a map-reading culture like the US. 

But Rakesh and Rashmi believed the digital maps market in India would boom and 80 percent of all data would have a location component. The couple started the company with Rs 50 lakh they saved while working US jobs at General Motors and IBM. 

“My father and mother had seen maps were beneficial to business and government organisations in the US. Not only did people in the US use digital maps, but also used print maps to take on road trips. So, they wanted to bring this kind of technological progress to India” said Rohan Verma, the founders’ son and an electrical engineer who joined the business in 2004 and worked his way up to CEO and executive director.

MapmyIndia capitalised on this and monetised its map offerings through consumer apps, navigation devices, licensing, map APIs, tracking, and analytics, etc. 

The company has grown its prowess with location technology, specifically in the areas of navigation, tracking, IoT, and analytics to provide products, services, and solutions to over 10 million end users – be it consumers, enterprises, or the government.

It sold its solutions to customers in industries such as automobile, ecommerce, banking and insurance, spacetech, and more. MapmyIndia’s inbuilt digital map solutions are used by auto companies Tata Motors, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, TVS Motors, and others. Its maps also power Flipkart, Amazon, and Ola