Telcontar

About Telcontar

Operating initially under the name Telcontar, the company was established in 1996 and carved out a significant niche in the burgeoning field of digital mapping and location-based services. Based in San Jose, California, the firm functioned as a B2B provider of a geospatial software platform. Its core business involved licensing this technology to power internet portals, mobile applications, and in-vehicle telematics systems.

The company's platform offered a comprehensive suite of features, including mapping, local search functionality, geocoding, and turn-by-turn navigation. This enabled their clients to integrate robust location services into their own products. Telcontar's technology was notably adopted by major internet companies of the era, including Ask Jeeves and Yahoo!, and was even used by Google Maps in its initial phase. Under the leadership of President and CEO J. Kim Fennell, the company successfully navigated the competitive landscape by offering high-volume, rapid-response mapping solutions.

After more than a decade of operation, the company rebranded from Telcontar to deCarta, continuing its focus on the enterprise mapping market. A significant milestone occurred in March 2015 when the ride-sharing giant Uber acquired deCarta for an undisclosed sum. This strategic acquisition was aimed at enhancing Uber's internal mapping capabilities, particularly for improving the accuracy of estimated arrival times (ETAs) and supporting services like UberPOOL. Following the acquisition, the majority of the deCarta team, including CEO Kim Fennell, transitioned to Uber, integrating their deep expertise in geospatial technology into the transport-focused company.