Nearly a year ago, Amsterdam-based startup Polarsteps launched a beta version of its automatic travel-tracking app iPhone app, and Tnooz profiled the company.
The app enables travelers to log and share their journeys in an effortless and prettily designed way, such as one traveler's recent 30-day trip through Ethiopia.
Polarsteps' tech innovation is that it uses ambient location technology to fill in the gaps in your journey when your smartphone isn't able to connect to a GPS signal or the internet.
So far it has acquired 20,000 users, who have together visited more than 3.5 million locations and created 150,000 status updates (or, as the app call it, "steps").
Today the startup says it has raised Euro 500,000 in equity investement from Silver Point Ventures, a fund created by internet entrepreneur Jorrit Steinz, and TMG Startups, a fund run by one of the largest news media companies in the Netherlands.
The company, which has four cofounders and one employee, doesn't reveal metrics on how popular its iPhone app is. But it says it plans to use the funds to further develop the app and to launch an Android app this summer. (It's looking to hire an Android developer.)
As a mobile travel log, it provides a new type of trip journal that may be popular among vacationers taking multi-country dream trips.
Koen Droste, cofounder and CEO, told Tnooz:
"Our primary growth driver so far are user recommendations rather than partnerships. The large majority of our current users have found Polarsteps because of other travellers or friends telling them about the app."
For the future, we expect to boost growth further through partnerships with media companies, airlines, and airports. This summer we will start experimenting with this, for example through revenue-share based partnerships around the photo album feature we will launch.
Droste declined to disclose what valuation this investment places on the company. He says the team will move into an office in the center of Amsterdam next month.
As a result of the investment, Polarsteps will move into a new office in Amsterdam.
Earlier: Startup pitch: Polarsteps automatically tracks and plots worldwide jaunts