GoodMaps recently closed on $3.5 million in fresh capital.
The seed round was led by Louisville-based Strike Ventures, with participation from Future Labs Capital, Keyhorse Capital (KSTC), Brook Smith and several other local and regional angel investors. The American Printing House for the Blind also invested in the new round. Formerly known as Access Explorer, GoodMaps was founded by APH in 2019.
CEO Jose Gaztambide told me he would be thrilled to raise that amount of capital in any environment, but especially in this challenging market environment, when many investors have been reluctant to write checks.
According to Pitchbook data, Kentucky startups secured just $14 million in the second quarter of the year, down $29 million in the first quarter. Nationally, startups raised $62.3 billion in venture funding during the second quarter, a 24% decline from the first quarter and a 23% decline from the second quarter of last year, when startups raised $81.9 billion and $81.2 billion, respectively.
The company, which does indoor digital mapping and offers a navigation app, GoodMaps Explorer, has been fundraising since the start of the year, Gaztambide said.
"I think a lot of what allowed us to do that was just the traction we're seeing," he said. "We're on pace to triple revenue this year versus last year, and in particular, we've had fantastic traction in retail."
Gaztambide couldn't talk specifics about the retail deals just yet, and he hopes to be able to share more in the coming months. He did note that in addition to retail, GoodMaps has been growing in the transit sector, specifically fixed rail, and has mapped about half of that network in the United Kingdom.
Since January, when the company was selected as one of KY Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022, GoodMaps has grown from 13 to 23 full-time employees, about half of which are in Louisville.
The seed round will be used to scale the company's operations even further by investing in business development and sales, in addition to some work on its technology.
Gaztambide said GoodMaps will also begin to focus on universal navigation. Since its inception, the company's technology was designed to aid blind and visually impaired people navigate indoor spaces, but he says the total addressable market is much larger than that population alone.
"We have kicked off the process of redesigning the app in a way that makes it something that anybody can use, at least that is the aspiration," Gaztambide said. "We're starting with people who are blind and low vision, then sighted audiences and then we'll eventually start providing experiences for neurodiverse travelers, for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. We're really just expanding what we mean by universal."
