Nokia Steps Up Its Mapping-Quest, Buys Earthmine For 3D Street Level Imaging

Nokia today is taking some big steps to upgrade its Maps division, starting with a big rebrand as Here. To beef up the service, today Nokia also announced that it has acquired earthmine, a specialist in 3D street-level imaging, based out of Berkeley. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Nokia says that the earthmine team will join Nokia’s Location and Commerce business division. It will remain in Berkeley, which will become a “key site” for the company’s 3D mapping business.

The news was unveiled earlier today at a Nokia event where the company was announcing the rebranding of its mapping service as Here.

earthmine offers technology that competes against the likes of Google and its Google Earth and Street View offerings, but while Google offers its service both at the API and direct-to-user levels, up to now earthmine has focused only on the B2B side of the equation, offering services like street-level imagery for apps, mapps for GIS databases, and even mapping data for emergency services. But since Nokia itself has its own direct-to-consumer mapping product, it would be logical to think that the company will be “mining” earthmine’s databases and technology for Here.

On the other hand, earthmine’s existing business serving third parties with data is a good basis and extension of Nokia’s wider services remit and extending its footprint outside of what it can achieve on its handsets alone — which as we know has been in trouble for a while now in the face of competition from Android-based devices and Apple’s iPhone. (Along with that, the company is today also extending availability of its maps data to iOS and Android developers.)

Altogether, earthmine offers 3D mobile mapping systems, automated data processing pipelines, cloud based hosting services and server software, to desktop software, client side developer tools and direct integration with GIS software. It works with some 30 partners across the Americas, Europe, Australia and the Asia/Pacific regions to collect its data and distribute it worldwide and the company says that its services are being used services in markets including the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Canada, France, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Saudi Arabia.

Release below.

Nokia To Acquire earthmine Inc.

BERKELEY, CA – November 13th, 2012 – earthmine Inc. announced today that it is has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Nokia. earthmine, based in Berkeley, California, is a privately-owned company that develops a powerful end-to-end 3D street level imaging solution — from collection hardware to processing workflows, cloud hosting and client software.

The earthmine team is expected to join the Nokia Location & Commerce business and Berkeley, California will become a key site for the development of 3D reality capture technology.

“We are very excited to be joining Nokia – a company with a huge presence and vision in mapping,” said John Ristevski, co-CEO of earthmine Inc. “We could not hope for a better place to fulfill and accelerate our mission of indexing the world in 3D.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2012. The terms of the transaction are confidential.

About earthmine

earthmine, Inc. is a world leader in 3D street level imagery delivering a full end to end solution from 3D mobile mapping systems, automated data processing pipelines, cloud based hosting services and server software, to desktop software, client side developer tools and direct integration with leading GIS software. earthmine has 30 partners across the Americas, Europe, Australia and the Asia/Pacific regions, providing market and customer specific solutions in conjunction with earthmine technology. earthmine technology is being used in local search, mobile, mapping, GIS, safety, and security markets worldwide in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, France, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Saudi Arabia, as well as other countries around the world. For more information, visit http://www.earthmine.com or follow earthmine on Twitter at http://twitter.com/earthmine.