Google has acquired Urban Engines, a mapping analytics and visualisation start-up. The move will help Google Maps team "better understand how the world moves."
Urban Engines was started by Shiva Shivakumar, Balaji Prabhakar, Deepak Merugu and Giao Nguyen in 2014 with an aim to improve urban mobility by "using information from the billions of trips that people and vehicles make each day."
The start-up has announced the acquisition in a blog post but it didn't disclose details of the transaction.
"Today, we're excited to share the next phase of our journey -- Urban Engines is now a part of the Google Maps team! Location analytics is an important focus for both Urban Engines and Google, and we're excited to combine forces to help organisations better understand how the world moves. There's a lot we look forward to building together, and we can't wait to show you what's next," said Urban Engines.
Interestingly, the start-up company has a connection with Google. Co-founders Shiva Shivakumar and Giao Nguyen worked with Google in the past. Shivakumar was with the search giant for almost a decade and Nguyen was a principal engineer of the company. The acquisition is like rejoining the company for them.
