The World's Traffic Info Provider
Inrix may be the fastest-growing, most far-reaching company you’ve never heard of. This Kirkland-based business of 275 employees has grown 85 percent a year for the past three years to the point at which it generated tens of millions in revenues last year selling traffic data.
In the six years since it was founded, Inrix has emerged as the leading traffic-service provider in the world, distributing the information on everything from Google Maps and in-car navigation displays to local traffic reports on the evening news.
The company is expected to go public early in 2012. What distinguishes Inrix from competitors is its large-scale data gathering and analytics technology. It has an extensive traffic data network that collects traffic information on more than 2 million miles of road in North America and Europe by collecting updates from 45 million GPS devices in smartphones and cars that have installed the Inrix application. That data gives Inrix a comprehensive, detailed and real-time look at traffic conditions not just on major freeways but also on many city streets.
“The more devices we have, the more coverage we can offer, and the better quality of the data,” explains Inrix President, CEO and cofounder Bryan Mistele, a Harvard Business School graduate and former Microsoft manager. Better information attracts more customers, which, in turn, leads to a broader base of customers providing data. It’s the kind of positive feedback loop that every business dreams of.
The firm also holds proprietary Microsoft technology that analyzes road conditions and predicts future traffic. Inrix’s customers can know up to a year in advance what traffic conditions will likely be, information that is particularly valuable to the public sector as states and municipalities plan road projects.
“What we’re doing here is fundamentally transforming an industry that traditionally consisted of gathering data from AM radio operators and helicopters to a model that relies on complete digital crowd sourcing,” says Mistele.
Inrix sells its traffic data primarily to three sets of customers: automakers, mobile phone users and governments, with automakers representing the biggest segment. It so far has staked out partnerships with more than 250 organizations in the private and public sectors.
With the total market for traffic information expected to climb 50 percent to $1.8 billion in 2014, from about $1.2 billion last year, Mistele is confident that Inrix will be worth $1 billion. That forecast may prove conservative. The
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