What was the water cooler chatter yesterday at Inrix, the Redmond provider of real time traffic information? Well, there was certainly some talk about Waze, which announced a whopping $25 million round of funding from Blue Run Ventures, Magma Venture Partners and Vertex Venture Capital. The company, with offices in Silicon Valley and Israel, describes itself as social application which provides "real-time maps and traffic information based on the wisdom of the crowd."

That's right up the alley of Inrix, a fast-growing spin-out from Microsoft research which over the past six year years has raised $31.1 million. So, what do the folks at Inrix think of Waze?

Jim Bak, a spokesman for Inrix, said they view Waze more as a potential customer than a competitor. Of course, that's what companies always say. But Bak went on to note some key differences and methods that the two companies could work together.

"They simply don’t have the data or the technology to deliver high quality traffic information automakers or state and federal departments of transportation require," Bak said. "In the mobile space, other navigation apps would never (buy) traffic data from Waze based on the simple fact that they’re considered a competitor."

Waze is pretty light on data. Many of the markets where it is trying to compile traffic information, including those in Washington and Oregon, are listed in the "early building stage."

"INRIX’s real-time and predictive traffic information would improve the reliability of their traffic significantly and add the ability for them to calculate travel times and recommend the best routes to the customers," Bak added. "While community traffic reports from their user community provide the rest of their users with some idea of what traffic is like up ahead, it doesn’t answer the questions drivers care about most like: 'What’s the best way based on traffic to get there?' and 'Given the traffic conditions, how long will it take until I arrive?'

In other words, Bak says that Waze needs data. And that's something that Inrix has been adding in vast quantities over the years.

Nonetheless, a $25 million round is nothing to sneeze at. Bak says that funding provides further validation of the market for navigation and traffic information.

And he points out that Inrix has not needed to secure any additional funding in the past three years, a period in which the company has experienced 100 percent revenue growth each year and has either hit profitability or broken even. Inrix's backers include Venrock, August Capital, Bain Capital and others.

Inrix employs 70 people, and has about a dozen open positions in development and sales.

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