Genesys International, the parent company of 3D mapping product Wonobo, has raised Rs 65 crore from Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The company will use the fresh funds for upgrading its mapping technology infrastructure, building a platform for property tax administration, and for other smart city applications. The company said in a statement that the mapping platform for property administration will be first deployed in Mumbai within a year’s time. The platform will map road conditions, assets owned by the municipal corporations (trees, chairs, etc) and mobile telecom towers in an area. The platform will also be used in smart cities and for better planning and governance at municipal level. Note that Genesys had earlier raised an undisclosed amount of investment in October last year from online classifieds company Quikr. Post the investment, Quikr’s property listing revived Wonobo’s street mapping integration. However, we reported in June last year that Wonobo’s website, which used to offer a 3D panoramic view of cities in India went inactive, with a notice that read: “Please let us inform you as soon as we are ready to serve you again.” Wonobo’s website became inactive, just a month after the Ministry of Home Affairs released a draft “Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016”. The bill looked to regulate and license companies like Wonobo which collects mapping information and geospatial data. Note that Google’s Street View has also been disallowed in India since June last year for security reasons. Currently, Wonobo’s panoramic view maps are accessible through a mobile app for 17 cities; although it was…
