Uber Inc. has acquired San Jose, CA based mapping company deCarta Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 1996, deCarta provides geospatial software platforms that power Internet, mobile, personal navigation and location-based service applications, or if that doesn’t make sense, translated it provides mapping with bells and whistles in terms of features on top.

“A lot of the functionality that makes the Uber app so reliable, affordable and seamless is based on mapping technologies,” an Uber spokesperson told Mashable. “With the acquisition of deCarta, we will continue to fine-tune our products and services that rely on maps –- for example UberPOOL, the way we compute ETAs, and others – and make the Uber experience even better for our users.”

The price was not disclosed, but of note it is unlikely to have come cheaply for Uber. deCarta may not be a well-known company (many of its relationships were with other companies, such as a partnership with TomTom Inc.) but what it lacked in name recognition it didn’t lack for longevity and funding; from the days before the great first dotcom boom of the late 1990’s deCarta had raised $56.1 million prior to acquisition over 6 rounds that included Cardinal Venture Capital, Mobius Venture Capital. Norwest Venture Partners, Translink Capital and others.

That said, whether the acquisition was $80 million or $300 million it’s still mere pocket change to Uber, who has raised $5.9 billion to-date, including a staggeringly large round of $2.8 billion on a $40 billion valuation that closed in February.

The deal would appear to set Uber up for providing its own mapping platform within its apps, therefore negating the need to use third party providers such as Google Inc. for its mapping needs.

Possibly more interesting though is that the company will continue to operate under its own name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber; it’s a long shot but it’s not impossible that Uber may have just entered the mapping space as well, that is not just for internal purposes.

photo credit: Image taken from page 1329 of ‘La Terra, trattato popolare di geografia universale per G. Marinelli ed altri scienziati italiani, etc. [With illustrations and maps.]’ via photopin (license)