IndoorAtlas, a Finland-based indoor positioning technology developer spun out from University of Oulu, closed a €3.6m ($4.3m) series B round led by internet company Yahoo Japan yesterday.
Family-owned investment firm Takoa Invest and venture capital firm Innovestor Ventures also participated in the round, as existing investors. Kazuhiro Ninomiya of Yahoo Japan will join the company’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
Founded in 2012, IndoorAtlas is working on geomagnetic indoor positioning technology that uses smartphone sensors capable of identifying where a target is in a room by detecting anomalies in the earth’s magnetic field.
The company’s technology was originally created in University of Oulu’s computer science and engineering department.
IndoorAtlas initially raised an undisclosed amount from University of Oulu Innovation Services, Oulu’s tech transfer office, as well as Finnish government agency Tekes, Foundation for Finnish Inventions and unnamed angel investors in 2013.
Mobility Ventures and KoppiCatch provided $4.5m in a round that closed in June 2014 before China-based internet group Baidu invested another $10m three months later.
Erik Piehl, chief executive of IndoorAtlas, said: “IndoorAtlas is very happy to announce the closing of this investment round. The support of the investors enables us to advance and further commercialise our disruptive sensor fusion positioning technology.
“We are very excited about the new deeper relationship with Yahoo Japan. We both share the vision to make indoor worlds more discoverable in everyday life.”