Apple Buys Mapping Visualization Startup Mapsense for Around $30M

Apple’s steady stealth campaign to rival Google in maps continues apace.

Apple has reportedly purchased a San Francisco-based mapping startup Mapsense that builds tools for analysing and visualising location data.

Prior to founding Mapsense, Cohen had a stint as an engineer at the Silicon Valley analytics firm Palantir Technologies, which gained early funding the CIA’s investment arm In-Q-Tel. The company’s cloud-based service allows users to divide up graphical models of maps that store large amounts of data for easier digestion.

According to Recode, which first reported the acquisition, Apple paid in the vicinity of $30m for Mapsense and its 12 staff. Unsurprisingly Apple neither acknowledged nor denied the acquisition, instead choosing to release a boilerplate statement that reads, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our objective or plans”. Mapsense launched its developer platform in May and opened its doors to financial, advertising, government, and Fortune 500 institutions.

Over the years, Apple has quietly scooped up several location-services companies, including HopStop, a crowd-sourced maps tool, in 2013 and Coherent Navigation, a Global Positioning System company, this past May.

Mapsense raised a $2.5 million seed round in May, led by General Catalyst and with participation from Formation 8, Redpoint Ventures, and others.