Facebook on Thursday acquired Swedish mapping technology company Mapillary, which collects images from tens of thousands of contributors to build immersive and up-to-date maps, the companies said.

Mapillary CEO Jan Erik Solem, who founded the Malmö-based start-up after leaving Apple in 2013, said his company’s technology will be used to power products like Facebook Marketplace and supply data to humanitarian organisations.

Mapillary aims to solve one of the most expensive problems in mapping: keeping maps updated with ‘street-level data’

Facebook confirmed the transaction, but declined to disclose the terms.

Mapillary aims to solve one of the most expensive problems in mapping: keeping maps updated with “street-level data” about signs, addresses and other information that can be observed from the road.

‘Computer vision’

Mapillary crowdsources the images, ingesting pictures contributed from smartphones and other types of cameras, and uses “computer vision” technology to stitch them together into a 3D map.