Mapillary, one of the most known startups from the area, has been acquired by Facebook. This Jan Erik Solem, co-founder, announced this evening in a blogpost.
“Today, we’re excited to share that Mapillary has joined Facebook to be part of their open mapping efforts. As some of you know, Facebook is building tools and technology to improve maps through a combination of machine learning, satellite imagery and partnerships with mapping communities, as part of their mission to bring the world closer together.” the blogpost says
Mapillary started as a crowdsourced google-streetview alternative. The startup has a big community that has uploaded billions of images to its service over the years. This the plan is to continue, and to have a strong support for OpenStreetMap.
“Our commitment to OpenStreetMap stays. The plan is for the rights given to OpenStreetMap editors to remain unchanged and for our work with OpenStreetMap communities and companies to continue on the same path as always. Mapillary will continue to spearhead a collaborative model where all map communities, companies, cities, and others work together to keep the maps of our world accurate, detailed, and up to date.”
The exact terms of the deal are not known. Previous investments in the startup have been Atomico, Sequoia Capital, Samsung Catalyst and BMW.
You can read more over at TechCrunch as well.
