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GPS has become a ubiquitous feature in phones, smartwatches, cars, and other connected devices in many regional flavors, but it has many shortcomings for enabling ubiquitous features (mapping is the most obvious). It can be slow and inaccurate, contribute to rapid battery drain, and, as people know, can be used or exploited in unintended and alarming ways.
Today, Focalpoint, a UK startup building software to improve GPS operations, accuracy and security, is announcing funding to continue building the technology — which works up to 4G today and will work with 5G and Wi-Fi in the future. and to deploy the first commercial deployments of the system with early customers. Use cases for the technology include more accurate location for smartphone apps for navigation or location tracking (eg for running and other sports). to assist companies with their navigation services (eg for transport or migration management); And for better GPS security in general.
Focalpoint, based in Cambridge and founded as a spinout from the University of Cambridge, has raised £15 million ($17 million) as part of a Series C round that expects a total of £23 million ($26 million) upon completion. Moulton Ventures (FKA Draper Esprit) – which led the £6m round of 2021 Siri – and Gresham House are the two investors so far. CTO and founder Ramsey Faragher said other investors, which include a major US automotive brand as a strategic investor, will close in the coming weeks.
Focalpoint had another notable business development a year ago that is helping to put the startup on the radar of potential customers: Last September, it named Scott Pomerantz as CEO. Described as “a living legend in GPS,” Pomerantz previously founded Global Locket, one of the first companies to bring GPS to the mass market, and the technology has since been used by Apple and others. That startup was eventually acquired by Broadcom.
Speaking of Apple, Focal Point’s focus on better GPS is timely. Just yesterday, the iPhone giant announced its new Apple Watch models, which feature more accurate GPS using a multi-band approach on devices that feature new extended battery life. It’s a sign that device makers are prioritizing GPS and the investments they’re willing to make, and thus startups offering new and more effective approaches to disrupting the market.
As Faragher explained to TC, GPS development to date has largely been based on the chipsets embedded in the devices, which means that upgrading services generally depends on new hardware versions. That’s a big hill to climb, but consider the rest of the embedded chips market and the rollout of next-generation hardware: 1.8 billion GPS chipsets shipped as of 2019, with a total expected to grow to 2.8 billion by 2029. Smartphones cover those numbers, but autonomous, road and drone devices are growing rapidly.
Along with this, GPS relies on using one or the other of two radio bands; Typically one creates a better layout than the other but at the expense of draining battery life in the process.
Focalpoint is working on a software-based solution, which means the chipsets themselves don’t necessarily need to be changed or upgraded to implement the faster system, Faragher said.
He said he is working on algorithms aimed at understanding the directions of satellite signals. Using this to better understand the exact location of the device – not only improves the accuracy of a location, but also helps identify when. The symbol can be exploded to appear in one place when it is in another place. This is done by using the non-battery-intensive band, which was previously thought to have poor positioning performance. “A high-performance signal is always more computationally intensive,” he says, which is why it affects battery life. “We can do better with a low-quality, low-battery-intensive signal.”
There are other approaches that aim for the same effect, but Faragher says they’re too expensive and cumbersome.
“Before, only military antennas could detect motion,” he said, adding that those antennas come in the form of satellite dishes the size of a dinner plate and cost about $10,000 each — a huge expense when there must be hundreds of them to be used on a wide-area mobile network. “What we’re offering is military-grade behavior for the cost of software upgrades,” he said. “We make expensive antennas.”
The companies that worked with FocalPoint to test how the software works show where the company is aiming: The startup teamed up with Google and its Android team to test how the software could improve its mapping software during testing, which the two companies ran in London.
Image Credits: point of view
“Before using our technology for Google, we demonstrated that the low-resolution GPS band could not be used for indoor mapping technology,” he said. That in-house technology is what Google uses for all of its navigation services, including Google Maps and its devices. Google’s approach to determining location by picking up signals from buildings is a strong drain on battery life, with the highest GPS signal, but not the lowest, being useful. “We can make this low band work.”
During the interview, Faragher does not comment on whether he is working with Google or other specific companies.
“Existing GPS technologies are not fit for purpose and we are proud to continue to support Focalpoint’s mission to transform the accuracy of GPS and other global navigation satellite systems and, in doing so, solve the problems faced by businesses and consumers. Inaccurate and insecure receivers,” said Venture Partner with Moulton Ventures. David Cummings said in a statement: “We are excited to see how the team continues to build and expand following last year’s Series B funding, and to support FocalPoint in the next exciting phase for the company.”
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