Berlin Startup Mapify Conjures $1 Million in Seed Funding

Berlin social travel startup Mapify has announced raising $1 million in seed funding from U.S. and Europe-based funds and angel investors.

Launched in November 2017, Mapify is a social travel app that lets users “visualize, find and plan” unique travel experiences. Travelers can document their past and current experiences with text and photos, connect with other travelers and even collaborate on collections. 

The Mapify app uses a location-based feed to push recommendation based on travel-related interests. According to the startup,  Mapify has virally grown to a six-figure user base in just six months and is one of the fastest growing social platforms on the European travel market. 

On the face of this news, Mapify seems like an innovation filling a void for travelers wanting to step up their travel stories. The press on this funding is a marred a bit with the use of old cliches like “seamless” and “experience” which remind me of my favorite PR companies from New York and San Francisco. In short, the release is fluff except for the fact some people put a million-dollar value on the tool. 

On the upside, the news Mapify is already generating revenue from partnering with Airbnb does suggest a value proposition. Just to see for myself, I decided to do a little mini-test of the platform to get a first impression. 

• Signup – Seamless, just as they claim – Facebook straight to “Where do you want to go?” 
• Crete, Where I Live – Just to make it interesting – I am not sure where “Plastika Kritis” is, but maybe the Germans know more than I do. Big fail on Crete except for an Airbnb place on a map, the weather, and the rules for booze purchases. (half kidding here)
• My Hometown – Thinking Mapify might have focused on US tourist hotspots, I searched Charleston, SC, my hometown. Uh, no. 
• Okay, BERLIN then – Again, map does not load on my Samsung, Airbnb experiences top out the Brandenburg Gate and 400 other attractions? Maybe I am holding my mouth wrong. 
• Maybe India? – National Highway 46, Nimpani? Now there’s a unique experience. Time for somebody from Mapify to contact me for platform bashing. 

Okay, now I am wondering if anybody reporting on this seed funding has actually tested Mapify? I see my old colleague Steve O’Hear whistling the monied startup tune and mentioning Mapify being a finalist at TechCrunch Battlefield. Steve also shares a mobile image that makes Mapify look like the new wheel of social travel, but what I am seeing is nothing like  The rest of the reporters are, naturally, parroting what TC says. In fairness to Steve, he does not out-and-out call Mapify an “Instagram killer” for travelers, but he does not offer up any real negatives either. 

Seriously, I tried like heck to find something positive to write here folks. After having tested about 5,000 startups over the years, I just hate ridiculing developers. There are just too many half-wit innovations in the TechCrunch Deadpool. I found a hash #twoweeksusa, and ventured in – a map route and some decent images of California and part of the southwest – that’s it. #Paris brought me some bad grammar, juvenile descriptions of a 3 day visit. I had to stop. 

Excuse me guys, I just don’t get it. We’ve worked with 50 startups in the travel game better than this, TripAdvisor’s new social platform without the millions of travel lovers. One of those startups, Grafetee was better at the location and social game back in 2012, but the TechCrunch lot never “got it.” Six years later, and one million smackers thrown in, and it seems like somebody wants Mapify to succeed? Maybe it will. I hope so for the sake of the guys forking over the green.  

Somebody correct me if I am wrong on Mapify.