Polarsteps offers an app and web service that automatically tracks a user’s route and visited places while travelling, then plots the route on a colorful world map that can be shared in real time. The product transfers travel routes, key locations and photos to a personal page and can generate an instant photo album (Travel Book) when the trip is finished. The company monetizes by selling Travel Books ordered online. Polarsteps is available on iPhone, Android and via its website. The app has one million registered users who have collectively traveled over 52 million days; the company currently has 10 employees. It intends to use the new funds for product development and team expansion. Polarsteps is a travel-tracking platform that lets users schedule trips, log locations and populate a colorful map with approved “steps” and photos. The app provides statistics such as trip duration, countries visited and distance traveled, and can generate an instant photo album when a trip is finished. Polarsteps is led by co-founders Niek Bokkers and Koen Droste and has been in stealth mode since 2015. The company offers apps for Android and iPhone (www.polarsteps.com/app). It raised €900K in seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to hire engineers and further develop its product. Previously the company raised €500K in March 2016. Polarsteps is a mobile app that automates travel blogging by periodically recording GPS locations, syncing when connectivity returns, and populating a travel log with locations, photos, distance traveled and countries visited. The iOS app is currently in public beta and is free to download. The company raised a €500,000 ($563k) seed round from Silver Point Ventures and TMG to finish the iOS feature set and build an Android version. Polarsteps’s offline-first design lets it record trips without data roaming and synchronize when users hit cell reception or Wi‑Fi. The concept originated with founder Niek Bokkers’s 2013 sailing trip and the team tested a prototype on a motorcycle journey from Amsterdam to Cape Town. Co-founder Koen Droste has said the Android launch is planned for the summer following the seed raise.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Jan 2019