Aliso Viejo navigation software startup Networks in Motion Inc. is looking to pinpoint a profit in 2008.
The company is on track to see more than $25 million in sales this year, up 56% from 2007 and up from $2 million in 2006, Chief Executive Doug Antone said.
The higher sales should allow the seven-year-old company to see its first profit this year, he said.
Networks in Motion’s software does what industry insiders call “location based services” for wireless phones. The software looks up maps, offers driving directions and searches for local businesses.
Newer versions touch on social networking with “friend finders” and security “child trackers” that allow parents to track their kids’ movements via their phones.
“We envision the day that 50% of the people with cell phones will have navigation,” Antone said.
Customers include Verizon Wireless, part of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., and other big wireless service providers.
The company doesn’t provide software to makers of portable GPS devices, such as Garmin Ltd. or Magellan Navigation Inc.
In the fourth quarter, Networks in Motion had 60% of the navigation software market among the top four wireless service providers, according to data from Nielsen Mobile, a unit of New York-based market researcher Nielsen Co.
More than 3 million people have subscribed to Networks in Motion’s software via their cell phone service providers, according to the company.
A year ago, Networks in Motion doubled its space in a move from Irvine to Aliso Viejo. It has some 93 local workers and offices in Sweden and Spain.
Sales are growing on contracts with Verizon, Alltel Wireless Corp., Sprint Nextel Corp., AT & T; Inc., U.S. Cellular Corp. and international wireless carriers.
The company takes a cut of the monthly or daily fee customers pay for the service,an average of $10 a month.
Antone declined to say how much Networks in Motion gets from each subscription.
“We get a nice share of the business but other people’s hands are in the cookie jar,” he said.
Networks in Motion was founded in 2000 by husband and wife team Michael and Angie Sheha.
Both electrical engineers, they met at California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories.
The company had an angel round of funding from Stephen Petilli, cofounder of Pasadena-based Pivotal Technologies Inc., in 2000.
Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. bought Pivotal for about $243 million in 2000.
Petilli also knows the Shehas from Jet Propulsion Labs.
Lucky Break
After weathering the technology downturn in 2001, Networks in Motion got off the ground with a lucky break in 2004.
It beat out 60 other companies in a contest run by Chicago-based online map kingpin NavTeq Corp.
The win got Networks in Motion additional startup money as well as free use of NavTeq’s map data for a time.
It also helped the company land a major deal with Verizon in 2005. Deals with other carriers followed.
The company’s software powers AAA Mobile, a navigation and trip-planning program used by the American Automobile Association as well as Verizon and YellowPages.com Mobile, a local business search program used on AT & T;’s phones.
Networks in Motion raised a $6.5 million round of venture funding in late 2004 and a second $10 million round in 2006.
Antone was brought in by San Diego’s Mission Ventures, which led the second round.
The Shehas have taken on the roles of chief technology officer and vice president of strategic planning. n
