The LSE Directory / Alternative data
HERE Technologies is a digital mapping and location-data company that builds and licenses "automotive grade" maps, geocoding, real time traffic, routing and positioning data through APIs, SDKs and bulk data catalogues under the HERE platform. Its core product is HD Live Map, a cloud based, continuously updated map layer used for advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving, alongside consumer facing tools such as the HERE WeGo navigation app and enterprise services like HERE Marketplace, where customers buy, sell or build on curated location datasets. It specializes in automotive-grade precision mapping for carmakers and Tier 1 suppliers rather than consumer search, competing with Google Maps, TomTom and Mapbox by offering on-premise and privacy-preserving (anonymized) deployment options that keep location data off public cloud infrastructure, which matters to automakers and enterprise customers with data-sovereignty requirements. For a markets audience, HERE is relevant as a source of geocoding, mobility and geospatial reference data rather than as a market-data vendor: its APIs geocode addresses, model traffic and routing patterns, and enrich logistics or fleet datasets, not source price or trading data. The company traces its roots to Navteq, a US digital-mapping firm founded in 1985, which Nokia acquired for 8.1 billion dollars in 2007 and rebranded HERE in 2012. In 2015 Nokia sold HERE to a consortium of German automakers, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz (then Daimler), for roughly 2.8 billion euros. Intel bought a 15 percent stake in 2017, and Mitsubishi Corporation and NTT jointly acquired a 30 percent stake in a deal announced in December 2019 and completed in mid-2020, with Bosch, Continental and Pioneer also holding smaller minority stakes. HERE is headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, states it operates across roughly 52 countries with more than 50 offices, and is led by CEO Mike Nefkens, who took the role in January 2024; outside employee-count estimates for the company vary roughly between 6,000 and 9,000 staff. In January 2025 HERE announced a 10-year, 1 billion dollar cloud infrastructure agreement with AWS, pairing HD Live Map and a new tool called SceneXtract, which uses AWS generative AI to convert real-world scenes into simulation-ready environments, with AWS compute to speed development of ADAS and automated-driving systems and to distribute HERE's mapping and location services through AWS Marketplace.
