US: MapAnything, the leader in Location-of-Things (LoT) solutions, announced the close of a $42.5M Series C investment that includes first-time participation from GM Ventures and Andrew Leto, with participation from existing investors Salesforce Ventures, Greycroft, Harbert Growth Partners, and David Stern. In connection with the financing, Andrew Leto, Executive Chairman of Emerge, has joined the MapAnything Board of Directors.
The Location-of-Things market is massive and growing. Markets and Markets predicts that it will reach $27B by 2022, driven by the shifting demands of customers in the on-demand economy. MapAnything is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity with nine years of innovation in the market and groundbreaking location-aware solutions that help 2,000 BtoB companies leverage location as a unique competitive differentiator.
“In a world where everyone and everything is connected, location-based insights open up entirely new opportunities to transform the customer experience,” said Mike Rosenbaum, EVP of Product at Salesforce. “We’re excited about the continued impact MapAnything’s location-based solutions, combined with the world’s #1 CRM, will deliver for customers.”
Connected devices transform sales and service
MapAnything’s customer-focused solutions dovetail neatly with GM’s commercial growth strategy and its leadership in connectivity. GM sales to commercial customers have grown by more than seven percent annually since 2012, and the company has delivered more than 11 million vehicles with built-in 4GLTE Wi-Fi hot spots.
Last month, GM surveyed some of the country’s largest fleet managers, and more than 90 percent said connectivity has the biggest potential to transform their operations.
“We have seen firsthand how the most sophisticated fleet managers in the world rely on connectivity to optimize their investments in vehicles and people, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible using sophisticated tools like MapAnything,” said Ed Peper, Vice President, GM Fleet.
By 2020, customer experience overtakes price as key brand differentiator
Organizations must adapt to the new reality of customer experience. For sales organizations, the business value of face-to-face interaction is $12 for every $1 spent on business travel, yet sales organizations spend less than one-third of their time actually selling. MapAnything customers are seeing their customer interactions increase by up to 25 percent, resulting in higher sales, less competitive pressures, and happier sales reps who make more money and spend less time driving to appointments.
For field service organizations struggling to keep pace with the shifting on-demand expectations of their customers, the stakes are equally as high. Harvard Business Review reports that an increase in customer retention rates by five percent could increase profits from 25 percent to 95 percent; yet most field service organizations struggle to provide precise visit windows and customer notifications, which today’s customers demand.
Location-of-Things for BtoB
The MapAnything platform creates location awareness within the system of work, where field sales and service activity is planned, tracked and executed. It uniquely helps enterprises automate complex business processes and make more informed decisions with a combination of a patent-pending routing and scheduling engine, integrated GPS tracking capabilities, and an intuitive location-based visual layer.
MapAnything increases productivity for field-based workers in agile enterprises. It answers complex spatial questions easily and enables more prompt service and amazing customer experiences in an increasingly “On Demand” world. The company delivers these results to some of the world’s largest financial, manufacturing and CPG companies in the Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2,000.
The company will use the funding to expand its reach in key markets, broaden the vibrant MapAnything developer community, and deepen relationships with strategic partners. Additionally, the company will increase its R&D efforts to capitalize on new market opportunities and technology advancements.
