For San Francisco startup Point One Navigation, the importance of location extends far beyond real estate. Investors clearly agree. The company, which develops precise location technology, has raised thirty-five million dollars in a Series C funding round led by Khosla Ventures. This investment brings the company’s post-money valuation to two hundred thirty million dollars.
Founded in 2016, Point One Navigation creates precise location technology for any moving vehicle or object. Its applications range from autonomous lawnmowers and drones to robots, consumer vehicles, agricultural equipment, and even humans wearing a wearable device. The company’s technology, known as a positioning engine, can determine location within one centimeter under optimal conditions.
To achieve this precision, Point One combines an augmented global navigation satellite system, computer vision, and sensor fusion into a single API. This API is typically deployed as a software product, as many new vehicles already come with the necessary hardware. For equipment that lacks the hardware, such as farm machinery or a first responder’s gear, Point One provides a chipset.
The company initially focused on automotive clients, a reflection of the bullish market for autonomous vehicle technology. This sector still represents a large portion of its revenue. While Point One could not disclose most customer names, it confirmed its technology supports the advanced driver assistance and infotainment systems for one electric vehicle maker and is included in over one hundred fifty thousand of its vehicles.
The company also holds contracts with some of the largest mowing and turf care manufacturers, a distribution company’s fleet of three hundred thousand last-mile delivery vehicles, and a global manufacturer of street and racing bikes.
The startup began expanding into other sectors around 2021 when it announced its Series A funding round. This move accelerated adoption significantly. Over the past year, the number of manufacturers using Point One’s technology platform has increased tenfold, spanning automotive, robotics, industrial, and wearable sectors. This growth continues to accelerate.
The new Series C funding will be used to develop all aspects of its technology. This includes the Polaris RTK Network, a key hardware component that delivers centimeter-level accuracy even in sparsely populated areas across North America, Europe, and Asia. The industry demand for higher precision is growing across applications from agriculture to landscaping, where being off by even ten centimeters is not acceptable.
Achieving this level of precision required eight years of development for the RTK Network. This system consists of small, lunchbox-sized units installed in secure locations like cell phone towers. These stations provide location corrections. To create an effective network, stations must be within forty kilometers of a vehicle or device, requiring a dense installation of units which the company is nearly finished building out across key regions.
Point One is also working to enhance its technology for indoor use. Currently, a vehicle moving from outdoors into an indoor parking structure maintains its precise location. The company’s next goal is to extend this capability to fully indoor environments, such as industrial settings where a robot operates entirely inside. This fundraising will support the development of long-term indoor navigation, as the company’s ultimate goal is to solve ubiquitous location across all domains, both indoors and out.