Cartogram has reeled in more cash to help expand the use of its mapping technology.
The Seattle-area startup just raised another round of funding from investors like Cyanogen founder Steve Kondik; former Bing Maps manger Sandeep Singhal; and a bevy of other firms across the U.S. It also recently won a $100,000 first place prize at the Flywheel Investment Conference. Total funding to date is now $1.8 million.
Founded in 2013, Cartogram provides indoor and outdoor mapping services that help people find their way around everything from basketball arenas to hospitals. The startup sells app-based products and also integrates with existing websites. It uses a combination of Bluetooth positioning, GPS, active Wi-Fi scanning, and passive Wi-Fi Cartogram’s to track location and provide turn-by-turn directions.
Customers like the Sacramento Kings or Vidant Medical Center use Cartogram with beacon technology, while also adding icons, labels, containers, regions, and waypoints on a map with their own branding. Cartogram also developed a chatbot that lets users easily find a given location.
Cartogram is led by founder Will Clausen, an engineer who was previously at Microsoft and has experience at places like Samsung and HP.
Clausen said that his company offers a more granular and custom version of maps technology than what’s available from a company like Google, which offers its own indoor maps product. Cartogram also provides permission-based routing if a client wants to allow a certain subset of users to navigate to a given location, in addition to private geospatial data.
Other competitors include another Seattle startup, Point Inside, as well as Indoor Atlas. Clausen said that Cartogram differentiates itself by providing both indoor and outdoor way-finding via app, browser, or even printed paper. He also pointed to the company’s integration with major healthcare companies.
