Automotive manufacturer Porsche paid about $55m on Friday for a 10% stake in Inrix, a US-based provider of real-time traffic information.
Porsche acquired the stake through primary and secondary investments. Inrix, founded in 2004, had previously raised approximately $78.3m from Bain Capital, Venrock, August Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to SEC filings.
Philipp von Hagen, the Porsche board member in charge of investment management, said: “Connectivity between cars and infrastructure is one of the mega trends in the automotive industry. The need for traffic-related information and data-driven solutions is therefore growing fast. We see tremendous potential in this segment of the automotive value chain.”
Inrix’s Traffic Intelligence platform constantly analyses real-time traffic data to provide information on an estimated 6.4 million kilometres of road across 40 countries.
Von Hagen said Porsche is also considering investing in additional mobility and connectivity companies, having entered talks with driving vision system developer Mobileye last year over a 10% stake acquisition.