Success Story of MapMyIndia: Before Google Maps, This Indian Unicorn Trod New Terrain

In the vast landscape of digital mapping services, one company that really stood out for its innovative approach and unwavering determination is MapMyIndia. Founded by Rakesh and Rashmi Verma, the company had traversed top cities of India by foot even before Google revolutionized web cartography in the country. Want to know the success story of MapMyIndia? In this blog, we will uncover the entire journey of this company and understand how its founders reached the pinnacle of success. 

How Did it Begin? 

It all started with a couple, Rakesh and Rashmi Verma, who launched a GPS navigation service before Google Maps was a thing in India. They founded MapMyIndia back in 1995 when businesses had little interest in buying mapping data. At that time, public internet access was not introduced in the country and tech-based startups had yet to make an impact on the culture of today’s digital havens.

However, slowly and gradually as the entrepreneurship culture started gaining popularity across the country, the Vermas stood out for establishing a name for themselves in the market. But just like any other startup story, the work was easier said than done for MapMyIndia. Since its inception in the industry, the founders had to face their fair share of struggles to carve out a niche for themselves.

More than 25 years ago, when the duo first came up with an idea to launch a web mapping service in India they already knew that this would require tremendous effort, hard work, and extensive travel to succeed. Finally, all their hard work paid off as within just a year of their launch, the company started catering to Coca-Cola to chart their distributorships in India. 

Obstacles in the Road

The road to success for MapMyIndia was fraught with challenges and obstacles at every turn. From 1995 to 2004, the Vermas spanned most of the top cities in India by foot, charting streets and landmarks, and this was done at a time when hardly anyone in the country had any idea about GPS tracking. 

Basically, one can say that the first few years for MapMyIndia were no less than a nightmare. Many times, Rakesh used to join surveyors on the streets of Mumbai, where their team had to manually record the addresses.

As technology improved, triangulating data helped in capturing distant corners of the country and the company was able to improve their data. 

Till 2004, MapmyIndia was mainly a B2B business that fosters companies from all over the world. In order to make this platform available for masses, the founders decided to transform their mapping service into a product. And for better reach among the customers, the company launched an online portal in late 2004. 

Success of MapMyIndia

When Rakesh and Rashmi first started out to build their dream venture they were determined to do something for the country. Hence, the couple decided to make it their life’s primary goal and successfully launched the country’s first digital map. Although, it was a difficult task in the beginning as India is known for its varied geographical and topographical diversities. 

However, with their continuous efforts and ‘never say die’ attitude, Rakesh and Rashmi made it happen. Today, the company has more than 5000 enterprise customers and it claims to have captured an 80% market share in revenue in the location intelligence space. 

MapMyIndia has more than 2,000 customers on its SaaS platforms, which are used for services like fleet management and location analytics. The platform has so far mapped over 10.54 million unique destinations, expanding its coverage to more than 6.29 million kms of the road network, 7068+ cities at street level along with 80+ cities on address level.