Some tech companies – Facebook, Google, Apple – want you to use their tech as much as possible. Some, like Richmond's Outdoor Access, want you to stay outside and enjoy nature.
The startup, founded in 2016, operates an online platform where landowners rent out large properties Airbnb-style to users for hunting, hiking and camping.
Its website lists 500 for-rent properties and about 3,500 members, who pay a $100 annual subscription. But that's bound to grow in a big way.
Outdoor Access just closed a $2.8 million Series A funding round, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, as it looks to scale to more states.
The capital infusion was led by VentureSouth, a South Carolina-based angel network that invests funds from high-net-worth individuals in early-stage startups across the Southeast. It's the group's first Richmond-area deal. Two-year-old Richmond venture group Trolley Ventures, a previous investor, also participated.
The company has mainly built up its network in Virginia and North Carolina so far, with the funds earmarked for a push into South Carolina, Texas and Pennsylvania, according to the RTD. It previously raised a pair of $1 million funding rounds in 2017 and 2018.
Outdoor Access was founded by Buck Robinson, Jamie Christensen and Aaron Bumgarner.
Bumgarner, who held the CEO post before leaving the company last year, is launching a new venture to acquire and preserve large natural spaces to rent out to a similar audience as Outdoor Access. His tech platform Outdoor Pursuits, Wisconsin-based app Where to Hunt and land-leasing platform Our Tracts will combine to form the new company.
