Startup inspiration can come from anywhere. But for Atlas.co*, a freemium browser-based real-time mapping tool built by a team of (initially student) engineers based in Oslo, Norway, there's a business opportunity in competing with expensive legacy. The realization that mapping software might strike the founder during class.
“When I took an introductory GIS class, [geographic information system]Half the class couldn't download it because their computers didn't meet the software requirements,” CEO and co-founder Fredrik Moger told TechCrunch. “That's a barrier in general, right? And I think Adobe was facing the same problem probably 10 years ago, and then Figma came onto the field.”
Atlas avoids the burden and cost of legacy software by providing a more flexible, user-friendly cloud-based collaboration platform and a software-as-a-service business model that starts from 1. We want to unleash the power of It's free and scales with your usage.
Moger also cites other cloud platforms (such as Airtable, Canva, and Notion) as the types of collaboration templates he wants to offer for doing great work with GIS data. On the other hand, on the legacy mapping front, we name Esri as the main competitor for GIS platforms.
Google Maps also offers custom map features and APIs for developers who want to embed rich, interactive maps elsewhere. However, it is not a complete GIS platform. As a result, we don't think Atlas has enough features to serve the B2B users it's targeting.
Typical users so far include people in renewable energy development, urban planning and real estate, Moger said. Perhaps unsurprisingly, maps are a powerful way to convey information quickly, so journalists were among their early users.
You can make maps very easily
Moger says Atlas doesn't require particularly powerful computer hardware to run. There's also no need to download and install any software, as everything runs within your browser.
He suggested that the tile rendering component the team built allows mapping data to be streamed from that infrastructure to the user's browser “very efficiently,” meaning no fancy hardware is needed. .
On the user interface side, our goal is to maximize accessibility by designing a clean, modern software experience that is easy to use. “[What] “What we are doing with GIS is making it available to everyone,” he said. “I think it should be really easy for anyone to build interactive maps and spatial apps.”
Atlas was founded in 2021, when its founder was still in university. They started their own business in the early stages of a startup, choosing to drop out of their planned post-college jobs to focus on their startup full-time. They launched their platform on Product Hunt in June. So far, there have been nearly 20,000 sign-ups in more than 140 countries, with most of them free users in the early stages, Moger acknowledged.
Key current features include a builder tool that allows users to build spatial maps and interactive dashboards. It also supports data layering, allowing users to upload information and display it on a map, and use tools to visualize and style the data.
The software also provides spatial analysis tools to automate functions such as proximity search, data aggregation, and density analysis. Real-time collaboration is also built in, with support such as real-time cursor display to help teams collaborate on visual location data editing.
The startup just closed a $2 million pre-seed round to continue developing its product. That's why hiring more engineers is at the top of the team's to-do list as they focus on continuing to expand Atlas' feature set.
Moger suggests that there is a growing need for visualization and storytelling in geospatial data analysis, including due to the impact of the climate crisis. (One hot example is a satellite map of Valencia, Spain, which is being patrolled in the wake of the DANA storm disaster earlier this month, showing before and after photos.)
“With all the climate change that's happening and all the actions we have to take to combat climate change, a lot of new industries will actually need to leverage geospatial data more and more,” he said. suggested. “They currently don't have the capacity or skills to use existing tools. [those are the] New users and industries you want to target. These are the people we want to enable to use and manipulate spatial data. ”
While previously, only one person on a target team might have been an in-house GIS expert skilled in using legacy software, Moger says the goal of Atlas is to enable multiple team members to collaborate on geospatial data. I explained that it is to do so.
The funding is led by Pale Blue Dot, a European climate-focused VC fund. Other “prominent” investors who participated in this round include Ben Lang (an early Notion employee and former community leader), and Andreas Klinger (former CTO and founding team member).
in Product Hunt).
Joel Larsson, partner at Pale Blue Dot, commented in a statement: “Atlas.co is an important step in making spatial data accessible for important purposes such as climate action. I'm excited to support a team that also sees this as a catalyst.”
*Not to be confused with the 3D generation AI tool Atlas. Atlas is a benefits tool for global companies. Atlassian Team Software Atlas. Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot “Atlas”. Countless examples of the term atlas in technology include VC Sequoia's interactive map of European technology talent; So it might be time to retire this name.