Producing three-dimensional models of cities to unrivalled levels of detail is the goal of AccuCities, which is mapping out a bright future for itself after only six months of operation.
The start-up business offers up-to-date and affordable 3D city models for the B2B market. It is also adopting a “modelling as a service” approach that can undercut competitors’ prices significantly.
AccuCities’ customers – architects, building consultants, construction companies and CGI Studios – use the firm’s model in their planning and development activities as well as their marketing and sales. The start-up believes there is a market of more than 2,000 businesses for its services.
So far it has all been about London, but the business’s founders are casting an eye further afield.
AccuCities has already mapped 31 sq km of the capital. It is aiming to map 41 sq km by January 2018 and 105 km sq km by January 2019. Within a year it is hoping to entice 20 subscribers to its London model and 50 for small and medium-sized 3D models. At the same time it intends to produce small 3D models of other UK cities.
AccuCities may be a young company but each of the founders has been in the modelling business for a number of years. “Our target market is in London and we want to build up to doing maybe a couple of cities a year,” says Sandor Petroczi, one of AccuCities’ three founders.
“If we get enough hype about another city that may be doing a lot of development, and a lot of clients are asking about, it we would look to model those cities. It would be in tandem with London because we want to update our model of London. Every couple of years we want to have a new aerial survey made with new aerial photography, so we can make a new updated model.”
Winning investment from Pi Labs would accelerate that growth.
“The reason we are applying for funding from Pi Labs is because our ultimate goal is to build a level-four model of London, with all the façade detail and all the materials attached to buildings,” says co-founder Michal Konicek. “A model at that level would be without parallel in the UK. It could then be used for a variety of purposes, including tourism, film, architecture, advertising and so on.”
Developing a level-four model could cost as much as £5m.
In a competitive marketplace, AccuCities is looking to differentiate itself on price, variety (with a suite of products to fit every niche) and its offer of access to the London model via a subscription.
Pi Labs says: “The team has set out to achieve a technologically ambitious task with potentially huge benefits for a variety of industries. The team is already achieving traction and seems well on their way to making the project a reality.”
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