Telenav, Inc. provides automotive software and services providing both in-vehicle and cloud-based solutions.
In addition to navigation and LBS, the company’s connected car platform, VIVID, enables the company to deliver in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) software solutions and services that are improving in importance as consumers include digital technologies as a factor in their automobile purchase decision. Automobile manufacturers, or OEMs, are also looking to software and connected services to b...
Telenav, Inc. provides automotive software and services providing both in-vehicle and cloud-based solutions.
In addition to navigation and LBS, the company’s connected car platform, VIVID, enables the company to deliver in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) software solutions and services that are improving in importance as consumers include digital technologies as a factor in their automobile purchase decision. Automobile manufacturers, or OEMs, are also looking to software and connected services to build alternative and recurring revenue models beyond the sale of the vehicle. VIVID would provide OEMs a platform and a set of IVI applications to deliver an integrated and brand-specific, cloud-connected digital experience to their customers.
The company’s VIVID Nav application delivers hybrid navigation, which could provide in-vehicle navigation that is cloud connected for real-time traffic and up-to-date destinations search, but which could also function when not cloud connected, such as when driving in areas with bad cell coverage.
In addition to navigation, VIVID would enable applications for in-car commerce that allow consumers to make purchases for common items, like fuel, parking and quick-serve food and beverage. Other applications include a media player that could work with the used streaming services, an interface for common car controls, like the radio, HVAC, seat and other user settings, and functions enabling smartphone integration like communications and calendar access.
VIVID could also integrate voice-recognition-based smart assistants from major commercial vendors to make the entire digital experience in the car hands-free and safe. OEMs would have the option of taking the VIVID infotainment applications and configuring the look and feel to make it brand specific or use the underlying VIVID SDK to build completely new IVI applications for a more-bespoke solution for their customers.
The company offers five variations of its VIVID Infotainment and navigation software products and services to its OEM and tier-one customers for distribution with their vehicles and systems. First, the company offers on-board navigation systems that are built into vehicles with all key elements of the system residing in the vehicle as a self-contained application along with the related software and content. The company’s on-board navigation products do not require access to the Internet or wireless networks to function. However, they could utilize satellite or radio transmission to provide, for example, real-time traffic information. Second, the company offers advanced navigation solutions that contain on-board functionality and also add cloud functionality, such as cloud search, cloud routing, map updates and ‘live’ data. The company refers to these solutions as hybrid navigation. Third, the company offers mobile phone-based navigation solutions that project interactive map and navigation instructions to the vehicle's video screen and audio system, which the company refers to as brought-in navigation. Fourth, the company offers a VIVID Nav Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables its customers to add mapping and location capabilities to their cloud, mobile and on-board automotive applications. Finally, the company offers VIVID Infotainment, its connected car infotainment system that has navigation, commerce, voice, media, car controls and phone integration, which could be delivered as a turnkey solution or as a SDK.
The company provides its connected-car products and services directly to automobile manufacturers, such as Ford Motor Company and affiliated entities (Ford), which represented 44% of its revenue in 2020; General Motors Holdings and its affiliates (GM), which represented 34% of the company’s revenue in 2020; and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota), which represented approximately 10% of its revenue in 2020.
The company also provides its products and services indirectly through tier ones, such as Xevo, Inc. (Xevo) for certain Toyota solutions; LG Electronics, Inc. (LG) for certain Opel solutions; and Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America (Panasonic) for certain Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) solutions.
Business Strategy
The company has built its business and market strategy around the VIVID connected-car platform and solutions, addressing three automotive inter-related opportunities, such as delivering a delightful digital driving experience to drive adoption, monetizing with safe and convenient in-car commerce, and building incremental value with driving and road intelligence.
Automotive Products and Services
Ford distributes the company’s on-board product as a standard or optional feature in certain of its models and locations. The company’s navigation products are included in Ford models principally manufactured and sold in North America, South America, Europe and China, as well as distributed in models sold in Australia and New Zealand.
The company has a partnership with Toyota for brought-in navigation services where its Scout GPS Link mobile application is enabled to connect with select Toyota and Lexus models in the United States and Canada. In addition, the company has an agreement with Xevo, Inc., a tier-one supplier to Toyota, whereby the company’s Scout GPS Link and Xevo Engine Link provide brought-in navigation services, including an interactive moving map, for select Toyota vehicles equipped with Entune 3.0 Audio, as well as select Lexus vehicles equipped with Lexus Enform. The company’s contract with Xevo relating to the implementation of its solutions in Toyota and Lexus vehicles is expected to remain in place through 2026.
The company also provides entry level on-board navigation through LG, a tier-one supplier for the Opel and Vauxhall line of vehicles, for the European market. The company expects its solution to be available in select vehicles for model years 2021 to 2022.
In 2017, Daimler AG, or Mercedes, selected the company’s improved OpenStreetMap, or OSM, platform and navigation SDK to power its Mercedes-Benz COMAND TOUCH Rear Seat Entertainment system worldwide. In May 2019, the company announced that its solution would provide fully interactive mapping for rear seat entertainment and would be launched as optional equipment on the current Mercedes E-class and S-class models.
The company also has an agreement to offer its on-board navigation solution in select Jeep and Chrysler vehicles in the China market through Panasonic. The company’s on-board navigation solution was initially included in the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which had its China launch in August 2017, and is included in other Jeep Cherokee and Compass models in China.
Platform and Architecture
The company has created and continues to improve its reference navigation product, VIVID Nav, which serves as the foundation for its custom solutions and allows the company to show automobile manufacturers its latest on-board, brought-in and hybrid navigation capabilities. VIVID Nav is a cloud-connected navigation solution for automobile manufacturers that want to get to market with little customization. For manufacturers that want to offer a more tailored experience, the company offers the VIVID Nav SDK, which allows them to create bespoke navigation applications in their IVI systems. VIVID Nav also comes with a companion app SDK for manufacturers to offer a mobile companion app.
The company has developed proprietary technologies to provide both hybrid (on-board) and smartphone-based, brought-in mapping and navigation services. Its hybrid navigation products include a set of services, including local search for addresses and business, converting addresses to latitude and longitude coordinates known as geocoding, routing, map rendering, traffic decoding and processing, multi-level map matching, map updates, navigation and guidance. The company has also developed customized technology to improve the quality of speech recognition for address and POI searches.
The company’s cloud location-based services platform includes its engines for routing, mapping, local search, voice recognition, geo data aggregation, traffic, personalization, and sensor processing. The company leverages its existing back-end cloud technologies for deployment to automobile manufacturer and tier-one applications.
The company’s proprietary location-based services platform provides fast route and map generation while optimizing the route based on real-time traffic conditions. It also includes a local search technology so users could find addresses and POIs, to which users could then be routed.
The company’s back-end cloud services allow the company to deliver up-to-date, location-based data and services to support its on-board navigation technologies. The company has expanded its navigation offering to add Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS, capabilities. The company’s initial ADAS feature, called e-horizon, predicts the path of the user and extracts relevant map attributes to tell the vehicle about upcoming road characteristics, such as curvature and elevation.
The company’s OpenTerra Platform includes a range of OSM capabilities that allow the company to use crowd-sourced maps for advanced navigation services. The company first deployed OSM as part of its Toyota Entune Audio Plus and Lexus Display Audio multimedia products. The company continues to develop the OpenTerra Platform and its OSM mapping technologies. The company entered into an agreement with Grab Holdings, Inc., which collectively with certain of its affiliates, the company refers to as Grab, in August 2019 whereby the company licensed to Grab certain intellectual property underlying its OpenTerra Platform. The company also received a license back from Grab under certain intellectual property. The company might explore similar agreements with third parties to monetize and further develop the OpenTerra platform.
Infrastructure and Operations
Automotive Navigation
The company’s end users rely on its services primarily while on the road. As a result, the company strives to ensure the continuous availability of its services through its hosting platform and operational excellence.
Data Center Facilities: The company developed its infrastructure with the intention of improving the availability of its applications, which are hosted by Amazon Web Services, or AWS, with facilities located in California, Oregon, Virginia, Germany, Ireland and South Korea.
The company entered into hosted service agreements with AWS for primary resource capacity and disaster recovery capacity. Pursuant to the service agreements, AWS provides leased facility space, power, cooling and Internet connectivity.
The company has similar arrangements with Alibaba Group Holding Limited’s cloud computing business unit, Alibaba Cloud, to provide hosting services for its location services in China.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expenses were $79.3 million for the year ended June 30, 2020.
Marketing and Sales
Automotive Navigation
The company employs a sales team that focuses on targeted customers and responds to requests from automobile manufacturers and tier ones for proposals and related sales opportunities.
Intellectual Property
As of June 30, 2020, the company held 181 U.S. patents expiring between April 11, 2020 and August 23, 2038. The company had 37 U.S. patent applications pending.
Competition
The company competes in the navigation software market with established automobile manufacturers and tier ones and providers of on-board navigation services, such as AISIN AW CO., Ltd; AutoNavi Software Co., Ltd.; Robert Bosch GmbH; Elektrobit Corporation; Garmin Ltd.; HERE; MapBox Inc.; Navinfo Co., Ltd.; NNG LLC; Shenyang MXNavi Co., Ltd.;
Dispositions
In 2019, the company disposed of its digital advertising operations (the ‘Ads Business’).
History
Telenav, Inc. was incorporated in 1999.
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