MapmyIndia Mappls invests in KOGO to build travel & hyper-local discovery, commerce, social, and gamified platform integrated with maps and navigation

MapmyIndia (C.E. Info Systems Ltd.), India’s leader, and global provider of, advanced digital maps and deep-tech products & platforms, announced it is acquiring a 26.37% stake in Kogo Tech Labs Private Limited, a cutting-edge start-up aiming to build the world’s largest travel & hyper-local discovery, recommendations, commerce, social and gamified platform, for USD 1.25 Mn (INR 10 Cr), with the option to raise stake to 50% in 2 years.

MapmyIndia Mappls offers global solutions including hyper-local maps and rich & real-time places data, automotive N-CASE technologies (Navigation-enabled Connected Vehicle, Autonomous Safety & ADAS & Autonomous Safety, Shared, and Electric Mobility platforms), consumer-facing apps, and more. Millions of 4-wheelers, 2-wheelers, and new-age Electric Vehicles and their companion apps are built-in with MapmyIndia Mappls N-CASE maps & technology solutions. By integrating Kogo’s gamified travel, outdoors and hyper-local content, community & commerce platform into the Mappls N-CASE suite, MapmyIndia Mappls will now enable Automotive OEMs in India and globally to increase consumer engagement, brand loyalty, and in-vehicle commerce monetisation opportunities.

Launched in February 2020, with its strong community-building and engagement platform for travel, KOGO has received significant interest from Automotive OEMs, who can drive post-sales engagement & build communities and engagement around their brands. KOGO is a gamified social travel commerce platform where users earn KOGOCOIN as they step out and travel, and can spend these on Hotels, Experiences, Services, Accessories, and stores on the KOGO Marketplace. The KOGO marketplace has over 8,00,000+ Hotels, Experiences, Stores, and service providers across the world and continues to expand its network to maximize spend & burn opportunities for its users. Subscribers of KOGO earn & burn 3x more on their trips, experiences, and adventures. This currency can be spent on KOGO’s large network of in-app and in-platform bookings, services, and marketplace. KOGO’s solutions are already integrated into Bajaj Auto KTM, Mahindra Classic Legends Yezdi, and MG Motor Hector.

Raj K Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder & CEO, KOGO, and Praveer Kochhar, Co-Founder, said “We are happy to have MapmyIndia Mappls as our strategic investors and partners as we build on our vision to offer the world’s largest social travel commerce platform. Our goal is to ensure that KOGO is the go-to platform for Automotive OEMs that give their users an experience of connecting with like-minded people via our community and discovering new places and experiences in an engaging and unique gamified format. KOGO will benefit through integration with MapmyIndia Mappls best-in-class maps, navigation, N-CASE & geospatial technologies, and IoT to help us build something unique, and working with them on go-to-market will help us scale rapidly. There is a lot more planned as part of the partnership for the future, that will also deliver integration solutions & apps to consumers, the travel eco-system, brands, businesses, and government. We are excited to progressively unveil our vision for travel, outdoors, hyper-local, social, and gamification, in the time to come.”

Rakesh Verma, Chairman and Managing Director, MapmyIndia, and Rohan Verma, CEO & Executive Director, said “Building world-class digital maps & technologies and delivering their positive benefits to everyone through infinite use cases has been our core mission and conviction in India since the last 27 years through MapmyIndia, and now globally, through our global platform and brand, Mappls. We are excited to welcome and join hands with KOGO to boost and enable the next generation of travel, outdoors, hyper-local, and on-the-go experiences and use cases for everyone. Not just does this strategic investment and business partnership deepen MapmyIndia’s Automotive OEM portfolio and open up larger multi-billion dollar addressable markets for the company, but it helps us deliver on the innate needs and aspirations of all people to travel and experience the world in better and more ways. We are very excited about KOGO’s prospects to grow into a very large business and happy to partner with Raj and Praveer, two visionary, passionate, and seasoned entrepreneurs, to build something wonderful for the world.”