In 2024 I forgot where I'd parked at Mall of Africa. I couldn't remember which stores I'd passed on the way in, so a security guard and I spent close to an hour trying almost every entrance, with him asking at each one whether it jogged my memory. It didn't. From then on, I photographed parking pillars, entrances and shopfronts so I could retrace my steps from my camera roll.
A few months later I landed at OR Tambo late one evening, hungry, and opened Google Maps to find a Woolworths. It kept routing me along the roads outside: GPS doesn't work indoors. Once again a large building had beaten me, and this time the thought stuck: someone should do something about this.
I searched the App Store and found no indoor navigation for South African venues. So I asked 100 people about finding their way in large buildings, and 97 told me they felt the same frustration. What started as my own problem turned out to be theirs too, and that is why IndoorNav exists.
Mihle Senene, Founder and CEO
