Mapbox, a data startup that built a location-based platform for developers, announced today that it has raised $164 million in a late-stage financing.

The Series C funding round was led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, and it also included participation from existing investors Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, DBL Partners and Thrive Capital. This brings Mapbox’s total funding to more than $227 million.

Thanks to the rise of connected cars, augmented reality and other emerging technologies, there are more and more products coming out that rely on location data to function. Founded in 2011, Mapbox offers a platform that makes it easier for developers to create tools that use that data for maps, location search, direction services and more.

“Location data is central and mission critical to the development of the world’s most exciting technologies, from autonomous transportation to robotics through to AR and VR,” said Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank Investment Advisors. “Mapbox has a unique platform using decentralized, anonymized sensors to map the world live. By investing in Mapbox, we are investing in the foundational infrastructure for the next stage of the Information Revolution.”

Mapbox said its platform collects more than 200 million miles of anonymized sensor data per day, and it is already used by more than 900,000 developers. Some of the company’s customers include major companies such as Snapchat Inc., The Weather Channel, Tableau Software Inc., IBM Corp. and others.

“We are mapping and measuring everything,” said Mapbox Chief Executive Eric Gundersen. “The SoftBank team understands that location data is transformational to every industry. This is a step function move that will transform the fundamentals of how everything — people and goods — move through our world.”

In addition to expanding its presence in Asia and Europe, Mapbox plans to use its new financing to focus on growing in what it considers to be two key industries for its business: automotive and augmented reality. For its automotive segment, Mapbox plans to develop its deep learning and computer vision technology further to support in-car navigation and autonomous vehicles. Mapbox also plans to expand support for augmented and virtual reality by growing its Mapbox Unity SDK team, which develops tools for Unity 3D, a popular game engine used by both the gaming industry and the enterprise to create AR and VR experiences.

Photo: Mapbox