With new seed funding from one of Austin's most prominent venture capitalists, Austin oil and gas software startup MineralAnswers.com has opened its massive industry database and search capabilities to the public.
The funding amount wasn't disclosed, but the company said the investment came from Austin Ventures co-founder and Silverton Partners founder Bill Wood.
MineralAnswers offers a SaaS product that helps mineral owners and industry professionals get quick and easy access to regulatory data. It was founded last year by Jeff Chambers, who previously founded DrillingEdge.com, UpstreamDB.com and was director of U.S. products at HomeAway in its formative years from 2005 to 2008.
"Over the years of working with customers and seeing all of the questions they had that were going unanswered, it was clear there was a need that no one was filling," Chambers told Inno in an email exchange. "DrillingEdge is still a separate business. When we formed, we consolidated UpstreamDB into MineralAnswers.com to create a single brand (a lesson I learned from my years at HomeAway.com) that we could focus on and leverage the data platform we had already built on UpstreamDB."
The startup, comprised of three full-time employees in Austin, helps mineral buyers who are looking for opportunities match up with those looking to sell. It also helps oilfield businesses connect with business opportunities and know who's drilling and where. Meanwhile, private equity firms and hedge funds use the data to research companies they might invest in.
It's business model is to provide the data for free and sell additional services on top of that. It's also looking to roll out new commercial models soon. The new funding will help with that, in addition to boosting marketing and development.
"Our vision is to become the Google of energy information, so that includes increasing our data catalogue, exposing more of our tech and marketing capabilities, as well as expanding into adjacent markets, outside of the upstream oil and gas space," Chambers wrote.
Chambers said Wood is the startup's only investor so far.
"I wasn't sure I wanted to raise capital for this venture, but the opportunity to work with him specifically, and operate outside of the constraints of a traditional fund with a long-term view of building a great company was what changed my mind," he wrote.
The startup is launching into the oil and gas market during a period of significant volatility in demand. But as prices go down, mineral rights owners are looking for useful tools to research current production levels and project risk.
Meanwhile, Chambers said there's no doubt a shift to renewable energy, but oil and gas are still used for many other products. And market shifts to alternative fuel investments provide opportunities for MineralAnswers.com, as well.
"The interesting thing to think about is how the mineral and royalty space is growing," he wrote. "There are two main driving forces. One, as drilling technology evolves, it changes what basins are economical. This generally expands the area that can be explored, which naturally includes a whole new set of mineral owners. The second is as owners pass away, they leave that asset to one or more people - creating exponential growth in the mineral / royalty owner side of the business."
