TomTom Africa has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with the world’s leading independent location based solutions (LBS) technology company, deCarta. With more than 18 years’ experience, deCarta provides software and services that can add mapping, routing and local search functionality to companies’ services, all in their own branded offerings.
The agreement, effective immediately and spanning all of Africa, will see TomTom Africa providing an integrated digital mapping offering running on deCarta’s acclaimed LBS platform which currently features over 30 million users across the world.
deCarta’s highly integratable LBS platform allows for development on – among others – J2ME, Android, iOS and Desktop/Mobile Javascript. They recently launched L2 Geospatial Search Engine, a high performance, scalable local search engine with single line input and a simpler, more intuitive user interface. deCarta sources and indexes premium map and POI (Points of Interest) content but also enables customers to index and control their own content using the L2 Index tools.
The company also recently introduced its Xplorer V9 navigation platform, combining deCarta’s cloud-based navigation service with customisable client-side libraries. This combination gives application developers the ability to quickly add vector mapping and Turn-by-Turn navigation to any mobile application, from local search to fleet management, providing users with fast and accurate driving directions to a destination or search result. Xplorer V9 is available as a white label application or as client-side libraries depending on the degree of customisation required.
“We are delighted to extend our relationship with TomTom Africa” said J. Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta. “They have proven the value of bringing fully integrated solutions to their customers, combining the very best in content, platform and applications know-how.”
The deCarta agreement will make it possible for companies operating in Africa to have free access, during the development phase, to a wide range of LBS application programming interfaces (APIs) and services. TomTom Africa will then provide hosting services for their production applications.
Etienne Louw, Director Sales & Marketing of TomTom Africa, commented “The TomTom portfolio including digital maps as well as the most accurate real-time and historical traffic products, effectively sees us entering a new era in the provision of our international value offering to the African marketplace. And together with deCarta- the world’s foremost LBS provider – it greatly enhances our digital mapping services to our customers. “
About TomTom
Founded in 1991, TomTom (TOM2) is a leading provider of navigation and location-based products and services.
TomTom maps, traffic information and navigation technology power automotive in-dash systems, mobile devices, web based applications and government and business solutions.
TomTom also designs and manufactures its own location-based products including portable navigation devices and fleet management solutions, as well as GPS-enabled sports watches.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom has 3,500 employees worldwide and sells its products in over 35 countries.
For further information, please visit www.tomtom.com/licensing
About deCarta
deCarta is the leading independent, global LBS technology company. It provides specialized geospatial technologies for online mapping, routing, navigation, geocoding, local search and geo-data integration and processing. The company’s platform is used by leading high volume LBS applications and services in the mobile, internet, enterprise-fleet and automotive markets where scalability, flexibility and reliability are vital. http://www.decarta.com/.