Ingersoll-Rand, parent company of Club Car, announced it was acquiring GPSi Holdings, also known as GPS Industries. The GPS company has provided Club Car with Visage for the past 8 years.
Visage is a fleet management system that provides fleet owners with real-time tracking, vehicle control and diagnostics, and golfers with an enhanced experience that includes in-vehicle display of course information, food and beverage service, messages and alerts. It launched the Club Car Precedent i3 in 2014, and the company has connected more than 70,000 vehicles in 50 countries through the Visage platform.
GPSi has moved beyond golf to serve other low speed vehicle markets, including education and resorts. Ingersoll-Rand hopes to expand in those markets.
“With GPSi, we are well positioned to help customers maximize the value of their fleets, and to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar market for intelligent mobile assets across trucking, resort, golf, education, rental and other industries,” said Dave Regnery, executive vice president of Ingersoll Rand.
GPSi’s predecessor was ParView, one of the first GPS golf car companies to bring a product to market. It was founded by David Chessler in 1993. It grabbed early marketshare, but like most GPS companies at that time, it failed to attract a significant number of golf course clients. ProLink acquired ParView in 2004. In 2009, Falconhead Capital, Club Car and Greg Norman formed GPS Industries and acquired ProLink.
Chessler, who left the company in 2002, is the chief investment officer at the Greg Norman Company.