SAN FRANCISCO — Mapbox, the leading real-time location and mapping platform for developers, today announced Roy Ng ( photo) has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). As President and COO, Ng will have responsibility for all customer facing operations, including sales, marketing, customer success, and business development, as well as finance, human resources, and business operations. He will report directly to Mapbox’s CEO Eric Gundersen.
Ng joins Mapbox from Twilio, where he was COO and led commercial operations for the company, responsible for global sales, account management, customer success, corporate development, partnerships, strategy and business operations. He also led marketing and human resources, and was instrumental in the success of the company’s initial public offering. Prior to Twilio, Ng was Senior Vice President and COO for SAP’s Cloud Business Unit. Ng joined SAP through its $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors where he was Vice President of Global Business Operations. Prior to SuccessFactors, Ng was Vice President and Head of West Coast Software Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, where he built and led the firm’s Software as a Service franchise.
“Roy gets the play and understands how we are a platform first, how developer adoption drives everything, and how live data is our lifeblood,” said Gundersen. “There are obvious similarities between Roy’s time as COO at Twilio and Mapbox being an API company, but more importantly, I love how fast Roy moves and how smartly he executes. Roy joins our team at a time where we are seeing real traction for our products in key markets. I’m incredibly excited to run alongside him as we scale our business and take it to the next level.”
“I’m super excited to join Eric and the incredibly talented team at Mapbox,” said Ng. “Together we are building a real-time location platform touching hundreds of millions of people. Any developer or business can now have live updating maps, accurate location search, and traffic-aware directions in their apps. The real value of a map is in the real-time data. Mapbox is collecting more than 150 million miles of anonymized data every day, estimated to be around 4 to 5 times more data than Waze was collecting when Google acquired them. Mapbox is at an exciting inflection point and the team is moving fast – just look at yesterday’s launch at GDC of Mapbox’s Unity SDK, bringing real-world maps and location to video games, or Mapbox Drive, the first lane guidance map designed for car companies to control the in-car experience, built specifically for semi-autonomous driving, ride sharing, and connected cars. I am honored and thrilled to join this journey with this exceptional team.”
“As a platform company, it’s all about delivering the highest level of performance at the lowest possible cost – and Roy bridges finance, business and software. I can’t wait to work with Roy as we scale past a quarter of a billion users,” says Emily McAfee, Mapbox’s Head of Platform.
Ryan McIntyre, co-founder and Managing Director of Foundry Group framed Ng’s hire as a pivotal moment in the industry. “The most exciting trend in enterprise SaaS is the power of the API-driven, developer-focused model, which Mapbox exemplifies. Roy’s prior experience makes him uniquely qualified to further accelerate Mapbox’s growth and vision,” said McIntyre, who led Mapbox’s first investment round and serves on the company’s board.
Randy Glein, co-founder and Managing Director at DFJ Growth added, “Mapbox has quickly become the leading choice for developers who want to integrate high-performance digital maps, geolocation and navigation capabilities into their applications. Roy brings highly relevant experience to Mapbox that will help cement our leadership position in the market and navigate the rapid expansion and scaling phase of our journey. The future is bright for Mapbox and shines even brighter with Roy joining our team.” Glein led Mapbox’s Series B and serves on its board.
Ng graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, with dual degrees in Business Administration and Political Science. He serves on the Boards of several technology companies, Junior Achievement of Northern California, and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Circle at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
About Mapbox ( photos of the Mapbox platform)
Mapbox is the leading real-time location and mapping platform for developers. Our services power mobile apps and websites from the biggest brands, including the Weather Channel, CNN, National Geographic, Github, and Airbnb in China. Mapbox is the foundation for other platforms, letting enterprises analyze their data, drone companies publish flyovers, real estate sites visualize properties, satellite companies process cloud-free imagery, and insurance companies track assets. Founded in 2010, Mapbox has offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and is backed by leading investors. Learn more at Mapbox.com.
