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| Company type | Private (acquired by Google) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data Analytics |
| Defunct | September 2016 (2016-09) |
| Fate | Acquired byGoogle |
| Headquarters | Los Altos, California, United States |
Key people | Shiva Shivakumar (Co-Founder and CEO)Balaji Prabhakar (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist) |
| Website | www.urbanengines.com |
Urban Engines was a data analyticsstartup based inSilicon Valley. It was acquired by Google in September 2016. It useddata to give insight intocities and how people move around in them.[1] Founder andCEO Shiva Shivakumar says the company is mapping the "Internet of Moving Things," as quoted by theNew York Times, which is a new way of mapping objects in motion.[2] The company's goal is to improvemobility in cities.[3]
Urban Engines has developed a new type ofdatabase, which maps objects in motion, called a "Space/Time Engine",[2] and currently has deals with cities like,Washington D.C.,São Paulo andSingapore[4] as well as delivery andlogistics companies.[1]
The company also released a commuter app with "mixed-mode routing,"[5] which evaluates different modes oftransportation – walking, driving,public transit, andUber – to give users the quickest routes.[5] The app is built on Urban Engines own proprietary mapping system.[3]
The company was founded by Shiva Shivakumar and Balaji Prabhakar. Shiva was previously VP of Engineering and a Distinguished Entrepreneur atGoogle (2001-2010), who helped buildAdSense, Search Appliances and Cloud Apps, and Balaji is aStanford professor and director of the Stanford Center for Societal Networks, a prominent research initiative to make societal networks smarter, more scalable and more efficient.[6]
Urban Engines has raised an undisclosed amount of money led byGoogle Ventures.Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Greylock, Samsung Ventures, early Google investorRam Shriram and Google ChairmanEric Schmidt also participated.[4]
