Airbiquity raises $25M for vehicle telematics
It’s been a long road for Airbiquity, but it appears to have finally found its home in wireless communications for vehicles.
Founded before the dotcom-boom, Airbiquity had big plans centering around adding GPS capabilities to mobile phones, but failed to execute. The company nearly disappeared during the tech crash.
It has since reworked its business into a wireless service for vehicles that tracks factors like performance, airbag deployment and navigation, and also allows some features like emergency calling and concierge services. The company says its product is installed in over 8 million vehicles.
The $25 million funding was led by Ignition Partners. Previous investors Acorn Ventures, Kirnaf LTD and Shell Internet Ventures also participated. Airbiquity is based in Seattle, Washington.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.