KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ArcGIS is one of the largest and best-known GIS solutions globally, with a full suite of tightly integrated solutions.
• There has been significant disruption in the industry in the last two years, and CEOs expect it to continue.
• Geospatial technology and the resulting intelligence are being used to increase sustainability with circular economies.
• Mergers are acquiring technical solutions to enhance product offerings and acquire cutting-edge technology and R&D centers.
• CAGR 2017 to 2020 was 8.14%, for 2020 – 2023 is expected to be 8.42% and projected to be 8.02% during 2020 – 2025.

INTRODUCTION

GEOINTELLIGENCE PRODUCTS

ArcGIS

• It was founded in 1969 by Jack and Laura Dangermond.
• It is privately held, has zero debt, and is committed to sustainable growth.
• ArcGIS Comprehensive is a scalable and battle-tested (literally) digital mapping and analytics software.
• It has over 350,000+ organizations that use its solutions, including "50% of Fortune 500 companies, most national governments, 20,000 cities, 50 US states, and 7,000+ universities",
• It employs a team of over 4,000 employees from 73 countries. 
•  Headquartered in Redlands, California, it also has 49 offices worldwide and 11 R&D centers.
• The company reinvests 30% of annual revenue into research and development.
• The last Annual international Esri User Conference (UC) at the San Diego Convention Center had 18,000 attendees.

• Esri ARC has 17 different products that provide support for Mapping, Field Operations, Spatial Analysis & Data Science, Imagery & Remote Sensing, Real-Time Visualization & Analytics, 3D Visualization & Analytics, and Data Management.
• They are categorized into three buckets.
• 1) GIS and mapping Products like ArcGIS Online, Pro and Enterprise, and more
• 2) Geo-Enabled Products like ArcGIS Business Analyst, Indoor for smart building management, Mission where tactical team awareness meets command and control and others and
• 3) Location Analytics like ArcGIS for Power BI

•  Largest GIS company in the world
•  Multi-functional integrated suites 
• With a longstanding reputation for excellence since the "1980s, ESRI has been a terrific performer in Geospatial, Geotechnical, Geology, Government, Utilities, Transportation and Logistics, IT enablement. ESRI is a high-end solutions and capabilities provider. Their software can handle all kinds of requirements in LBS, Spatial Statistics, Data mining with GIS, Market Research with GIS, Geodatabases, and likewise. "
• Users love it "Return on Investment, ROI from ArcGIS, ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, ArcLogistics and solutions is good. Customization is excellent, their data models and work is exemplary in GIS world."
• "GIS from ESRI-America is the dream for the Geographers, Engineers, and other geospatial professionals to work with"
• ESRI is offering startups free licensing for using it for GIS startups for one year.
• Map production and geospatial data capture and analytics all in one place. Scripting makes everyday tasks fast and repeatable.

• Esri is a privately held company.
• Esri has a solid M&A strategy to increase its functionality. They acquired six organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Zibumi on December 7, 2020. They acquired Zibumi for $5M.
• They also acquired nFrames on September 9, 2020, Indoo.rs on February 28, 2019, ClearTerra on February 23, 2018, Geoloqi on October 15, 2012, and Procedural on July 11, 2021.

• What Happens When the World's Most Popular COVID-19 Dashboard Can't Get Data?
• Esri boosts digital twin tech for its GIS mapping tools
• Esri Releases ArcGIS GeoBIM, Bringing Spatial Context to AEC Operations

Xtract.io

• Xtract.IO was formed in 2002. They currently serve "over 12 different verticals, have worked with 100 million sources, have extracted five billion records, and manage over 300 thousand requests per day.
• Mobius Knowledge Services Private Limited is an unlisted private company incorporated on September 11, 2002. It is classified as a private limited company and is located in India.
• It currently has 1,100 employees.

•  Business Intelligence and Analytics,
•  Ecommerce and Retail,
•  POI and Location Data, (3)
•  Unstructured Data Extraction,
•  Online Reputation Management,
•  Data Quality and
•  Data Enrichment.

• Team culture is lacking, which can negatively impact operational effectiveness.
• There are also no external reviews of their products and services.
• An analysis of the information on their website shows the location of their data is good but the selection of databases is fairly middle of the road.
• Their case studies show their technology and adaptability are good, but none of the case studies are corroborated by their clients. In general, they are very closed-mouth about anything that would allow an assessment of their competitive advantage.

• Owler estimates their annual revenue of 19 million. There is no record of outside funding.

• Neither Mobius Knowledge Services nor Xtract.io has any media releases on their websites.
• The company has 23 case studies on its site, but none of them are confirmed by the client or have any client quotes.
• There has only been one article in the news in the past year. It was not released by Xtract, but by Geotab.

•  Geotab and Xtract partner for advanced incident analytics "Telematics and connectivity expert Geotab has announced a partnership with Xtract, bringing that company's advanced incident analytics platform to the Geotab Marketplace — essentially a fleet management toolbox for fleet operators. Xtract is a global leader in digital First Notice of Loss (eFNOL) and real-time collision reconstruction analytics. The addition of their platform to the Geotab Marketplace provides Geotab's 40,000 customers worldwide access to seamless insights stemming from a collision, with digital, immediate reporting, and telematics-powered collision reconstruction. The result: greater accuracy and efficiency in collision resolution, and ultimately, a lower overall liability. "

CARTO

• CARTO is a platform that uses spatial data to create efficient delivery routes, better behavioral marketing, and strategic store placements.
• They focus on two aspects — location intelligence and spatial data management. 
• They market themselves to Banking & Insurance, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Cities & Government, Health Care & Pharm, Real Estate, Retail, Transport & Logistics, Telco and Utilities, Journalism, Education, and Conservation.

• Carto classifies their offerings by verticals. Industries include Government, Financial Services, Environmental, Logistics, Real Estate, Transportation, and more.
•  Processes include Geomarketing, Supply Chain Optimization, Out Of Home Analytics, Data Monetization, Environmental Management, Indoor Mapping, IoT Analytics, and more.

• Good information sharing to potential clients — user manual available online 
•  Exceptional Service (8)
• "Great bespoke service capability" 
• While restricted to location intelligence and Spatial Data Science, they excel at what they do
• Has adapted their solutions to different verticals quickly.

• CARTO has raised a total of $31M in funding over four rounds. Their latest funding was raised on September 16, 2020, from a Non-equity Assistance round.
• CARTO is funded by seven investors. Plug and Play Tech Center and Kibo Ventures are the most recent investors.
• CARTO has a post-money valuation in the range of $50M to $100M as of September 10, 2015, according to PrivCo. Sign up for a free trial to view exact valuation and search companies with similar valuations.
• CARTO has acquired two organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Geographica on May 29, 2019.

• Google Cloud Launches Partnership Initiative to Help Global Organizations Improve Sustainability and Better Understand Climate Change
•  First patients enrolled in SPACE-AF (4) study.
• Announcing CARTO Spatial Extension for BigQuery
• Uncovering Site Selection Strategies using Point of Interest Data

Map Info

• Precisely was formed by the merger of Syncsort and Pitney Bowes Software and Date,
•  Syncsort specialized in optimizing, integrating, and advancing data, while Pitney Bowes excelled in "customer information management, location intelligence, data enrichment and customer engagement solutions."
• The company has been in the Gartner Magic Quadrant 15 times.

• Mapinfo is "A complete, desktop mapping solution for the geographic information system (GIS) analyst to visualize, analyze, edit, interpret, and output data — revealing relationships, patterns, and trends."
• The company also offers Spatial analytics solutions and Geocoding and data enrichment solutions.

•  Free trial then $50 per month for 500 credits per month
•  Designed for use by analysts, does not require a data scientist to provide value.
•  Excellent support  
•  Expanding quality of offerings through acquisitions
•  Simple, adaptable, and scalable. Easy to learn.

• The company's estimated annual revenue is currently $149M per year. 

•  Clearwater Acquires Infologix
• Clearlake Re-Acquires Precisely In $3.5 Billion Deal 
• Precisely Powers Decision-Making With Critical Location-Based Context in New MapInfo Pro Release

Geoblink

• Geoblink is a Location Management solution that specializes in the Retail ecosystem. The company markets its solution to the retail ecosystem, including commercial real estate, retail, and consumer goods.
• Founded in 2015, it has a team of more than 60, with offices in Madrid and London.
• The Geoblink platform is sold in Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.

• Geoblink has three products.
•  Data Source: which provides socio-demographic and socio-economic profiling data, Footfall & road traffic, and more.
•  Insights: Finds locations for new openings, "Creates customized, hyper-localised and segmented campaigns according to the type of customer you want to reach."
•  360 Vision — lets companies see what happens inside and outside their points of sale on a single platform. It will identify and create key customer profiles and help the company "understand the market conditions surrounding each point of sale."

• Because Geoblink was developed with the needs of specific markets in mind, it has a significant competitive advantage in those fields.
• The solution integrates mapping data with retail data to build customized marketing campaigns.

• Geoblink has raised a total of $7.3M in funding over four rounds. Their latest funding was raised on June 1, 2018, from a Series A round.
•  Five investors fund Geoblink. Alma Mundi Ventures and Nauta Capital are the most recent investors.
• Geoblink's estimated annual revenue is approximately $10.2M per year.

•  Geoblink Shortlisted for the 2019 Innovation Award and Selected to Participate in Baringa Partners' Start-up Safari at the RetailEXPO
• Geoblink Launches Sales Forecasting Feature to Restore Retailer Confidence

INSIGHTS ON GEOLOCATION INTELLIGENCE MARKET

• Developed by Geospatial Media and Communications, GW Prime is a "subscription-based premium geospatial media platform, which offers quality content covering the entire geospatial ecosystem and the allied technology segments." The publication conducts annual surveys of the CEOs of the GIS industry.
• In 2018, the survey revealed that 85% of the executives surveyed thought there were too many disruptions in the geolocation industry. Sixty-Five percent blamed the disruption on outside forces, mostly venture capital-backed startups.
• In 2019, roughly half of the executives interviewed stated that advancements in GIS technology had completely reshaped competition, while the other half said they had had a significant impact.
• By 2020, only 21% believed there were too many disruptions in the industry. In fact, 94% now believe in being innovators and disruptors themselves, rather than waiting for someone to do it to them.
• Most significantly, this change comes through introspection and not false bravado. In the same survey, they identified their inability to innovate as their biggest internal challenge.

• One of the largest geospatial conferences focuses this year on using geodata to support a sustainable circular economy.
• Geospatial World Forum 2021
• The Geospatial World Forum 2021 is scheduled from 20-22 October 2021 in Amsterdam. It is focused on the Circular Economy.
• The theme was "Geospatial Infrastructure & Digital Twin: Empowering Circular Economy,"
• In the three-day event, topics discussed included the role of Geospatial Infrastructure in fueling the development of National Digital Twin and how Geospatial-enabled National Digital Twin can contribute to achieving the Circular Economy vision.
• A 2-day symposium that follows the conference dove further into the topic. The goal was to demonstrate how "Circular Economy practices can help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the promising role of Geospatial solutions in this regard."
• Specific topics in the symposium included:
• SDG 12 & Circular Economy: Ensuring Responsible Consumption and Production Patterns
• Geospatial & Circular Business Models
• Circular Agriculture: Rethinking Agricultural Value Chains to Prevent Food Loss
• Circular Economy & Net-Zero Emission Target
• Social Innovation and Collaborations towards Circular Cities

 

Source

There are five key ways that geospatial technology supports circular economy practices. These include:

• Supply chain transparency and traceability
• Reducing waste
• Extending product lifetime
• Support Recycling/Buyback campaign
• Maximizing the use of underused assets

• In 2019, the construction industry was seen as the most challenging industry to penetrate by technology companies. Challenges included the hesitancy of construction workers to use on-site technology, the disruption to current practices, and cybersecurity concerns.
• However, the external disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic created complex challenges for the industry, forcing it to look at approaches beyond the traditional. Therefore, it has been forced to reinvent itself and leverage GIS technology, among others, for efficient work processes.
• Construction companies are now "Integrating 4IR and geospatial technologies much earlier in the building information modeling process to improve construction workflow efficiency".
• Randall A. Wotring, AECOM's Chief Operating Officer, stated that AECOM has gone through a focused digital transformation, which resulted in an EBITDA increase of 21% for the first half of 2021.
• Revit from AutoCAD was being used by 1% of the construction companies in 2019. By 2020, it was being used by 51%. (3)
• Geolocation is used in the construction industry for managing "expensive machinery, from towers and mobile cranes to earth moving equipment, service vehicles and heavy trucks. In fact, it is often used for all types of assets that are worth tracking, such as generators and compressors."
• GPS fleet tracking users report positive ROI in less than six months.
• GIS systems are also being used to track workers' time to demonstrate compliance with safety regulations and monitor safe driving speeds.

INSIGHTS ON THE MERGER AND ACQUISITION LANDSCAPE IN THE GEOLOCATION INDUSTRY

• Just like all data management challenges, geolocation data must be governed to ensure quality and accuracy.
• Precisely acquired InfoLogix (May 5, 2021) and Winshuttle.
• Precisely was acquired by Clearlake Financials.
• The purpose was to acquire data integrity and governance software.
• The financial information for the merger was not disclosed.
• "As companies seek to position and differentiate themselves for the digital era, they quickly realize that success requires trusted data. Precisely provides that foundation with maximum accuracy, consistency and context so businesses can make confident data-driven decisions," said Josh Rogers, CEO of Precisely. "Infogix is a perfect fit for Precisely, with highly complementary data quality products and services, and a leading data governance solution that our customers have been seeking."
• McAfee made a major presentation to the Chinese government on data governance of geolocation data. The full report is available here.

• Example One — Automation of Image Analysis (3D data)
• ESR, the owner of ArcGIS, acquired nFrames, a technology company that develops SURETM, industry-leading imagery, and lidar 3D surface reconstruction software. (3)
• The goal was to "enable the fusion of imagery with 3D GIS, allowing nFrames and Esri users to seamlessly capture and analyze 3D data from aerial, drone, and ground-based sensors in an automated end-to-end process."
• Results "Esri gains a robust production engine that transforms imagery and lidar data into point clouds, phototextured 3D meshes, and true orthos. Users in government; urban planning; or architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) can use SURE to generate 3D maps at scales from individual construction sites to entire cities and countries—fully automated at higher resolution and repetition rates than ever before."
• "nFrames is a leading provider of 3D image reconstruction software and services, and I am excited to welcome the company to the Esri family," said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. "As Esri continues down its path of innovation to create a multidimensional experience, this acquisition enhances our ability to create extremely high-quality 3D data from imagery, which is critical for our customers in the municipal, planning, and AEC industries

• Example Two — Indoor Mapping Technology
• Esri acquired indoo.rs for an undisclosed amount. Indoo.rs had $2.4 million in funding to that point.
• "The indoo.rs software will become part of Esri's ArcGIS Indoors, a new mapping product that enables interactive indoor mapping of corporate facilities, retail and commercial locations, airports, hospitals, event venues, universities, and more. The acquisition will also provide users of Esri's ArcGIS platform with embedded IPS location services to support indoor mapping and analysis."
• "indoo.rs is a leading provider of IPS software and services. It works with organizations across the globe such as international hub airports, major rail stations, and corporate headquarters, and I am excited to welcome the company to the Esri family," said Brian Cross, Esri director of professional services. "indoo.rs" technology, experience, and leadership in the IPS field will be of tremendous benefit to our customers who want to bring the power of GIS to indoor spaces."

PROJECTED CAGR FOR GEOLOCATION INTELLIGENCE MARKET

• As reported by Statista, and taken from Grandview Research, the average CAGR in the US between 2014 and 2025 is 8.19%. The ranges calculated include 2017 – 2020 at 8.14%, 2020 – 2023 at 8.42% and 2020 – 2025 at 8.02%
• Transparency Market Research is forecasting a Global CAGR of ~11% between 2017 and 2027. The annual breakdown of those numbers is not publicly available.
• Markets and Markets Research projects a CAGR of 14.1%. Again, the annual breakdown of those numbers is not publicly available.
• Finally, a subset of the industry, the global indoor location market, is estimated to increase from $5.22 billion in 2016 to $40.99 billion by 2022. This will result in a CAGR of 42.0%. 

TRENDS IN THE GEOLOCATION INDUSTRY

From the vendor perspective, these are the five trends identified.

Source

 

• Managing COVID- 19
• Location analytics data and AI-based dashboards made it possible to identify outbreaks and make quick, informed decisions based on real-time information to curb coronavirus spread.
• Urban Planning
• Global smart cities are "revolutionizing transportation using location analytics to improve traffic and optimize travel." Urban planners also use LI data to understand traffic patterns and solve current transit problems using new construction or different modes of transport.
• Personalized Customer Experience
• According to a recent survey by Forbes, 75% of retailers ranked LI critical for their revenue growth strategies.
• Indoor Mapping
• Users can get 3D indoor maps in auditoriums, airports, music halls and theaters, plants and factories, residential and government buildings, hospitals, universities, shopping malls, and more.
• Disaster Management
• Emergency authorities can use current data to evaluate disasters like hurricanes or wildfires to make informed decisions. Sharing critical information among first responders and relief agencies supports better disaster planning and management.

• Location Intelligence is Merging with Business Intelligence
• Location data is being used in business decision-making in many areas such as marketing, predictive modeling, and others
• Real-Time Data Streaming
• When combined with the widespread availability of Cloud Computing, the increasing availability of location and sensor data through IoT means real-time analytics is possible.
• Indoor Mapping
• "The global indoor location market is estimated to increase from $5.22 billion in 20116 to $40.99 billion by 2022 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 42.0%."
• Autonomous Mobility
• Autonomous vehicles depend on a data-driven mapping system. They need real-time information that includes the latest information about the surroundings. These maps gather and analyze information in real-time from a variety of crowdsourced updates. The necessity of high-quality data is crucial, which takes us back to data governance.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

• company web sites,
• leading GIS professional publications such as geospatialworld.net,
• user industry publications like globalfleet.com for the insurance industry and gnc.com for government IT,
• reviews from Capterra and G2.com
• Business publications like industrywired.com and datasutram.com.