Retired teachers Martin and Margaret Canter were left with a bill running into thousands of pounds last year when a lorry driver ploughed into their Suffolk home and then drove away. The damage was caused after the confused driver attempted to manoeuvre back on course after being directed the wrong way down a one-way street by wayward instructions from a satnav. Locals said that satellite-guided drivers had become a scourge of the community because so many were being led the wrong way through their village.
For Nic Snape it is a familiar tale – and one which his company specialises in avoiding. He has just managed to steer 1Spatial Holdings (LON:SPA) through uncertain market conditions to pull off an admission on to London’s Alternative Investment Market. Now he is looking to capitalise on the company’s strong routes in mapping technology to grow the business both in Britain, Europe and the former colonies, where mapping processes based on the Ordnance Survey – the company’s biggest client – are still very much in existence.
1Spatial’s technology originally evolved from research into sub-atomic particles carried out at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. With an initial focus on developing software for handling vast quantities of data, it later gravitated towards the commercial opportunities of the mapping market. As government, corporate and consumer markets have got to grips with mapping and location-based data, so demand for the company’s services to manage and constantly update that information has surged.
1Spatial now sells its services on a software license model or as a hosted service to organisations that handle large volumes of data and want ways to boost efficiency, reduce costs and improve decision making. In the aftermath of the company’s reversal into AIM listed cash shell IQ Holdings, Nic Snape spoke to Stockopedia about his plans to grow the business.
Nic, tell me about the background of 1Spatial and how you got involved in the business?
I’m originally a geographer that got into IT and I had the opportunity to bring the two together, initially working in earth observation, which is taking pictures of the earth from space and using them for planning, environmental management and agricultural development. One of the bigger companies in the sector was based in Vancouver in Canada, so I emigrated there for about 10 years before returning…
