Australian Securities Exchange listed aerial mapping company NearMap (ASX: NEA) has launched business operations in New Zealand, establishing dedicated sales, marketing and product resources saying it aims to accelerate the significant growth opportunity that exists in New Zealand.
Nearmap specialises in producing highly accurate, and frequently updated,aerial maps. It flies urban areas in Australia,New Zealand andthe USA multiple times per year, processes massive amounts of visual data, and uploads up-to-date aerial maps to the cloud within days. These can be accessed by clients from its proprietary browser.
Nearmap produces three types of images: NearMapVertical, looking straight down with a claimed accuracy of 15cms; NearMapPanorama, which offers multi-perspective aerial views of urban areas with uninterrupted pan and zoom capabilities; NearMapOblique, whichprovides high-resolution photogrammetry and multi-perspective aerial views of urban areas.NearMapsays the service enable precise measurement of locations or features in three dimensions.
WhenNearMapOblique was launched, in July 2017,NearMapCEO, Rob Newman said it “maps reality, by capturing the tops, sides and view angles of locations, buildings and objects, providing specific details of exactlywhat’son the ground.”
Nearmap says it has been flying New Zealand since early 2017, and has imagery covering 72 percent of the New Zealand population, which is already being used by numerous Australian subscribers with significant business operations in New Zealand.
The company has now launched a New Zealand product that it says enables it to provide subscriptions specific for the needs of New Zealand businesses, with an initial range of tools and data specific to New Zealand that will continue to expand.
CEO Rob Newman said the company was now capturing areas of New Zealand multiple times at consistently high resolution, opening up opportunities in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Nearmap’s executive vice president of sales Shane Preston said the company had already seen significant interest from New Zealand businesses.
Remember QPSX, the forerunner of Nearmap?
The ASX listed company that is today Nearmap was originally QPSX, a listed company based in Perth in Western Australia formed in the 1980s to commercialise an Australian developed fast packet technology (Queued Packet Synchronous Exchange).
The technology achieved modest commercial success before being made obsolete by newer technologies and which point QPSX changed its name to Ipernica and its focus to securing rights to, and commercialising, intellectual property.
Ipernica acquired fledgling Nearmap, also Perth based, in 2008 for $A4 million in cash and $A12 million worth ofIpernicashares. Over the next few years Ipernica shifted its focus making Nearmap and increasingly significant part of its operations and in May 2012 changed its name to Nearmap.