Leading Skolkovo IT resident Navigine is to glean its geolocation data for its indoor navigation technology from Russian provider GLONASS in a deal signed this week between the two parties.
Navigine Indoor - one of four services offered by the company. Photo: navigine.ru screenshot.
The agreement, inked at the Navitech industry conference in Moscow on Tuesday, commits Navigine and GLONASS to jointly develop the Russian market for indoor navigation services. GLONASS was developed by the Russian government as an answer to the GPS system that most mobile devices use today.
GLONASS president Alexander Gurko called Navigine a “pioneer” in the sector.
GLONASS chief Gurko, left, and Navigine's Panev. Photo: sk.ru
“Navigine represents one of the leading trends in the navigation market – the development of indoor navigation and positioning indoors. We believe this to be the next wave of technology, which will create a multitude of interesting projects and stimulate growth in a new sector of the market,” Gurko said.
“Navigine is one of the pioneers of this market not only in Russia but across the wider world. It’s great when young guys, mathematicians, start up their own projects and develop their own business – and its works. We truly support this company and hope to conduct many projects together,” he added.
Navigine was established in 2011 by two PhD students from Moscow State University and joined Skolkovo’s IT cluster in October of last year.
Navigine is a platform for high-precision indoor location services using existing sensors inside smartphones and Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity.
The technology can be used anywhere from airports to shopping malls; from warehouses to hospitals, and helps with navigation, marketing, analytics, consumer behavior, and staff and vehicle tracking.
Aside from the obvious find-your-way-around and tracking services, the company also offers the installation of iBeacons around the premises that beam push notifications to phones when customers approach a certain store, for example.
The company says the global market for indoor location services is $579 million in 2014 and set to hit $3.9 billion by 2019.
Alexei Panev, the company’s general director, said the deal with GLONASS represented a “unification of effort, resources and competences that will allow us to develop a competitive product with unique specifications on a global level.”
According to co-founder and development director Oleg Demidov, Navigine is piloting its technology in the Moscow Metro and collecting valuable feedback.
“At the end of the day we want to create products ready for implementation in large-scale enterprises. We are also involved in R&D projects with GLONASS and these innovations should grow soon into commercial products,” Demidov said.
The deal was signed the same week as GLONASS and Skolkovo inked an agreementthat sees the navigation organization set up its own tech park at the Innovation Center.
The GLONASS R&D center at Skolkovo is to begin operating this year and take up 15,000 square meters of facilities, the agreement said.
The Navitech conference runs through Friday.