Israeli startup Mapme, which has developed a platform making it possible to compose crowdsourced maps, has completed a $1 million seed round. Investors in the round included Gigi Levy, Daniel Recanati, Kima Ventures, DRW Trading Group, and others. The company will use the money for development of its product and expanding its global business.
The startup was founded by COO Philippe Lang and his son, 21 year-old CEO Ben Lang, together with CTO Amir Zucker. The idea was born when Ben Lang, who formerly worked at Kampyle, a startup, and Conduit, together with investment company Lool Ventures, developed a website named Mapped in Israel. The idea behind the website is to create an interactive map displaying all the startups, accelerators, and investors in Israel.
The product built by the company makes it possible to create maps for various industries, such as government agencies, educational institutions, technology, entertainment, art, health, etc. An interactive visual representation of the community in that industry is created. Use of the map makes it possible to utilize crowdsourcing, so that surfers can participate in the mapping processes and improve the map. Furthermore, the map can be planted on external websites, making it easy to portray the community map.
Mapme says its product is already being used by 90 communities in 30 countries, such as the startup communities of Canada, Taiwan, and Ireland, as well as the Jewish community in Poland, and there is a map of the criminal underworld of Budapest.
"The ability to enable everyone to create a visual map of an entire ecosystem never existed before. The value that such a map provides for both members of the community itself and those considering joining it is enormous," Ben Lang says.
"There are a lot of ecosystem layers of startups: investors, supporting government agencies, joint work sites, and research centers," says Michael Guerin from Ireland Startup. "The Mapme service gave us the ability to connect all the layers with each other, so that members of our community can communicate with each other."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 23, 2015
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