Montana-based mapping startup onXmaps raises a round of funding fit for Big Sky Country

A mapping startup based in Missoula, Mont., which allows users to download sophisticated offline topographic maps outlining public and private lands and a number of other features geared towards hunting, fishing and camping, has pulled in its first major outside funding.

onXmaps has closed a $20.3 million Series A round led by Summit Partners. Bessemer Venture Partners, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Next Frontier Capital and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke also participated in the round. The company is calling the fundraise one of the biggest ever among startups based in Montana.

onX Hunt app

This is impressively the first bout of outside funding that the 70-person startup has ever taken since being founded in 2009.

The company’s founder and CEO Eric Siegfried, an avid outdoorsman himself, had created a more basic program to integrate these maps with his own Garmin GPS. After finding his friends were interested in having a product like this too, he put down $27k of his personal funds into the venture and turned his wife’s scrap-booking room into an HQ of sorts, copying the software he’d written to microSD cards and laser-printing labels.

A big application of the Missoula, Montana-based startup’s technology has been in enabling users to track the boundaries of public and private lands while creating custom maps with other information grouped into “layers” for when they’re hunting, fishing or hiking. The company’s central product for desktop, mobile and Garmin GPS devices is an app called onX Hunt, which the startup says is used by “millions of hunters” though onXmaps CTO/COO Joshua Spitzer notes that “almost zero percent of users use the product just for hunting.”

The company’s maps cover nearly one billion acres of public land and around 121 million private properties according to the company. Users can download topographic maps of these areas and use their mobile device’s GPS functionality to follow their own movements along user-designed routes or the more than 400,000 miles of trails that are available in the company’s app.

Public data access differs on a state-by-state basis so users can either pay $30 per year to get access to maps for a single state or they can plop down $100 annually to see data for all 50 states.

The company has thrived inside the Montana startup ecosystem, which you’d be forgiven for not having heard much about. The company’s leadership is pretty emphatic that the company’s success owes a lot to Montana itself though.

“In the onXmaps history, Montana is actually almost like a co-founder in some ways,” Spitzer told TechCrunch. “The company that we have today could never really have been founded anywhere else based on the sporting history and sporting culture in Montana and the patchwork land ownership situation that exists with public and private lands.”

As the company looks to grow, it’s looking to build new products outside of its core Hunt app in the coming months and use this latest round of funding to acquire more customers and more data to strengthen its services.

Comments

eGym raises $45M Series C for cloud-connected gym equipment and fitness software

eGym , the Munich-based startup that offers cloud-connected gym equipment and supporting cloud software and app for the fitness training floor, has closed $45 million in Series C funding. The round was led by new investor HPE Growth Capital, while existing investors, including Highland Europe, also participated. The problem that eGym is looking to solve is that, whilst gyms have moved from a bodybuilder market to a mass market in the last 20 years, the technology in gyms lags behind. That’s despite the fact that better use of technology can help to reduce customer churn, the biggest pain-point of both gym operator and gym users. Comprising of an app for both gym user and trainer, combined with the company’s connected strength machines, the eGym Cloud makes it possible for gym members to receive better fitness instruction and an evolving and personalised fitness plan based on data collected as they workout. And by providing a better workout feedback loop, gym goers can get an i...

Building a smarter home

The Jetsons presented a highly entertaining vision of what homes of the future would look like . The animated television show anticipated a world where humans would be able to do everything with just the push of a button. In many ways, the show turned out to be prophetic; today we have printable food, video chats, smartwatches and robots that help with housework — and flying cars may even be on the way. The challenge for companies is to integrate digital technologies in meaningful ways that enhance people’s homes and improve their lives. Many of the innovations to emerge over the past few years have been geared toward this kind of “push-button living.” Thanks to the rise of smartphones and the proliferation of cheap sensors, it is possible to make just about any household appliance “smart” and “connected.” By 2019, companies are expected to ship 1.9 billion connected home devices, bringing in about $490 billion in revenue. ...

Airbnb will open its Cuba listings to users outside the United States

Airbnb will now let travelers from outside the U.S. to book properties in Cuba after receiving authorization from the U.S. government, reports the Associated Press . Previously, only Americans were allowed to reserve the site’s Cuban listings . They will open to international users on April 2. Airbnb launched its Cuban operations in April 2014 , four months after the Obama administration revealed that it will begin to restore diplomatic relations with the Communist country . The historic policy change means that travel and trade sanctions will be lifted , which is expected to boost tourism to Cuba dramatically because Americans no longer need licenses to visit. In fact, President Obama is currently on an official visit to Cuba , the first president since Calvin Coolidge to do so. According to the AP, Cuba is currently Airbnb’s fastest-growing market, with about 4,000 homes added since it opened listings. Other travel businesses...

Oculus’ New $99 Samsung Gear VR Makes Serious Virtual Reality Affordable

At half the price of its last mobile VR headset, the new $99 Oculus-made Samsung Gear VR is cheap enough to unlock virtual reality for the mainstream. Revealed today at the Oculus Connect conference, it works with the whole 2015 line of Samsung Smartphones including the Note 5, S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Edge+. It will ship in November in time for Black Friday. Compared to the $199 previous Gear VRs that only worked with fewer phones, this headset will be a lot more accessible. The new Gear VR is 22% lighter, making it more comfortable to wear. The trackpad on the temple of the headset also now has a tactile directional pad on it so your finger will know where it’s touching. The previous Gear VRs had a smooth trackpad and sometimes it was to tough to know if you were touching it or just the unsensitive shell of the headset when you couldn’t see for yourself. There’s also a new Gear VR Gamepad which all the Oculus Connect conference attendees will get for free. It features an...

Careless USB removal causes multiple deaths

EIGHTEEN workers have died after a USB stick was removed from a computer without adequate precautions. The offices of Hereford-based Envision Photography were completely destroyed in the ensuing blast. Survivor Norman Steele said: “My colleague Helen had put some files on the stick to work on at home, and she yanked it out of the computer before anyone could scream ‘no’. “I kicked her aside as a jet of white-hot flame belched out of the USB port and set fire to the desk opposite. “Grabbing her, I dived through the window just before all the PCs in the network exploded with purple electricity that fried everyone in the building. “I sprinted to my car, knowing that the printers were already becoming merciless hunter-killer drones, shouting for Helen to follow. “But when I looked round I saw her frozen, something glowing in her hand, the awareness dawning of her fate. She was still holding the USB. “She detonated in a flash of ultraviolet light that turned eve...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog