The Extra Mile - GRIT Ed. 8 | The Relentless Pursuit - Magazine - Page 31
The Extra Mile
THE EXTRA MILE
Innovating Comprehensive Solutions
Whenever Armin and his team are in tough situations,
his confidence to make it through comes from the
belief he has in his talented and passionate team.
AMIN GHAREBAGHI
CEO and Co-Founder Of GeoMate
Next AI, 2021
GeoMate leverages location data
to advance safe & accessible urban
mobility and sustainable innovation.
AS CEO AND CO-FOUNDER,
DR. GHAREBAGHI LIVES IN
PURSUIT OF IDEAS AND
SOLUTIONS.
So it was no surprise when he, along with his
Co-Founder, developed GeoMate, a location
intelligence company that provides scalable
and dynamic H.D. maps of urban environments
to serve clients in a broad range of industries,
including automotive, delivery & logistics, city
planning, and asset management. Armin had the
confidence to start GeoMate because he and his
Co-Founder knew the geospatial data industry
very well.
In simple terms, geospatial information is
geography and mapping – locational information
that is data tied to and portrayed on a map.
With a combined experience of 30 years in the
field and having started businesses in the past,
GeoMate was founded in response to several
pain points. One of the major issues with the
traditional mapping process is that it is incredibly
time-consuming and expensive. Amin and his CoFounder believed they could address this issue
using A.I. solutions.
Setting out to improve accessibility worldwide,
Armin knew this was a tremendous problem
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MARCH 2022 | NEXTCANADA.COM
“When we started, we wanted to build a community
in Canada, and in Kitchener-Waterloo. From the very
beginning, I’ve been interested in leadership and
management and working with others. Teamwork
has always been a very key component of my life,
personal and professional, and I’m always especially
proud of the work that we accomplish because we
worked well as a team.”
“Our team is so intelligent and talented, and I trust
them completely – they have shown me that they are
capable of doing hard things, and I credit them with
all of our success.”
GeoMate has now mapped over 2,000 sqm of
urban area and analyzed over 15,000km of sidewalk
accessibility. Because of the versatile technology
GeoMate uses, they’re always looking for areas
to expand into. Since its launch, they have begun
working with other industries, such as autonomous
vehicles. Self-driving cars need to operate in complex
environments more safely and effectively than
to tackle and a difficult one from a technical
perspective; it would be a challenge to create
scalable maps with the level of precision needed.
Success was never guaranteed, but Armin and
his Co-Founder saw an opportunity to make an
incredible impact for people with disabilities.
The COVID-19 pandemic played a pivotal
role in reshaping entire industries, especially
those in the realm of delivery & logistics. The
demand for contactless same-day and next-day
delivery soared, putting pressure on companies
to develop innovative solutions to meet this
challenge. This rising demand pushed many
companies to develop low-cost alternatives to
deliver consumer goods. Despite the promise of
last-mile delivery, companies still faced technical
challenges. Existing maps often miss critical
data surrounding elements that impact delivery
efficiency. Such elements include sidewalk
networks and sidewalk accessibility, curb cuts,
crosswalks, traffic flow, and sidewalk closures.
This is a critical gap in the data that impacts the
ability to scale delivery operations and expand
into new markets effectively.
Amin identified this gap and the need for
scalable AI-based mapping software, which led
to the creation of GeoMate. Having received
government funding, and participated in several
accelerator programs like Next A.I., Velocity,
Le Camp, Google for Startups, and the Centre
for Peace Advancement, prepared him to face
challenges that come with building a startup.
“I HAVE ENJOYED THIS
PROCESS FROM START
TO FINISH, WHETHER
IT’S COMING UP WITH
IDEAS OR TECHNICAL
DEVELOPMENT
OR BUILDING AND
MANAGING OUR TEAM.”
human drivers. To do this, A.V. and Advanced Driver
Assistance Systems (ADAS) developers use various
technologies to help vehicles understand and move
in the world around them, including critical inputs like
high definition (H.D.) maps.
GeoMate has recently partnered with Esri, a
geographic information systems company, and
has been chosen to be part of the 2022 Propulsion
program hosted by Le CAMP and ScaleAI.
Armins Definition
Entrepreneurship
[än-trə-p(r)ə-nər-ship]
noun
: The art and the science of putting good ideas into
action.
GRIT | THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT
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