Strava, the exercise monitoring and social group platform utilized by greater than 100 million individuals globally, has acquired Fatmap, a European firm that’s constructing a high-resolution 3D world map platform for the good open air. Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Based in 2009, Strava has emerged as one of many preeminent exercise monitoring companies, proving significantly standard within the biking and operating fraternities which use the Strava app to plot routes, converse with fellow athletes, and document all their motion for posterity through GPS. The corporate has more and more been focusing on hikers too, and final 12 months it launched a brand new path sports activities and routes possibility aimed toward walkers, mountain bikers, and path runners.
Fatmap, for its half, was based a decade in the past, with an preliminary give attention to offering ski resorts with high-resolution digital maps. Within the intervening years, the corporate has labored with numerous satellite tv for pc and aerospace corporations to bolster its platform with detailed maps incorporating summits, rivers, passes, paths, huts, and extra, arming anybody venturing into mountainous terrain the data they should know precisely what they’ll encounter earlier than they arrive.
Fatmap in motion Picture Credit: Fatmap / Strava
With 1.6 million registered customers, Fatmap’s mission, finally, is to be the Google Maps of the good open air, with a premium subscription ($30 / 12 months) unlocking entry to further options similar to downloadable maps and route planning within the cellular app.
Built-in
The last word long-term aim for Strava is to combine Fatmap’s core platform into Strava itself, however that will likely be a resource-intensive endeavor that gained’t occur in a single day. And that’s the reason Strava is working to create a single sign-on (SSO) integration within the near-term, which means that subscribers will be capable of entry the total Fatmap feature-set by logging into the Fatmap app with their Strava credentials.
Whereas Strava and Fatmap will stay separate merchandise for now, Strava mentioned that it’ll resolve sooner or later whether or not Fatmap will dwell on as a standalone product as soon as the technical integration has taken place.
CEO and cofounder Michael Horvath, who stepped down in 2013 earlier than returning as head honcho six years later, mentioned that the Fatmap acquisition is a part of Strava’s “ongoing funding to offer a best-in-class digital expertise” for these searching for an lively way of life.
“The place different map platforms have been designed for navigating streets and cities, Fatmap constructed a map designed particularly to assist individuals discover the outside,” Horvath advised TechCrunch in a Q&A. “We’ll allow Fatmap know-how in all of Strava’s companies, empowering anybody to find and plan an outside expertise with curated native guides, factors of curiosity and security info.”
By way of timescales, Strava mentioned that it has arrange a devoted group tasked with integrating Fatmap, and it anticipates this to start out displaying up inside Strava from round mid-2023. The corporate was additionally fast to emphasize that Fatmap’s tech will likely be out there to each free and paid-for Strava members, although sure options referring to maps, discovery, and route-planning will likely be reserved for paying subscribers.
Strava supplied TechCrunch with the next mockup to present an concept of what Fatmap would possibly appear to be inside a future incarnation of Strava.
Strava / Fatmap integration mockup
Strava has raised north of $150 million in funding since its inception, with big-name backers together with esteemed Silicon Valley investor Sequoia Capital, however the firm hasn’t engaged in a lot acquisition exercise in its 14 12 months historical past. Strava did purchase damage prevention app Recuperate Athletics final Might for an undisclosed determine although, and at the moment we’ve discovered that Strava additionally purchased on-line athlete group Prokit in 2021, one thing that Strava didn’t formally announce on the time.
It’s clear that the proprietary 3D mapping know-how Fatmap had developed would have taken an excessive amount of time and assets for Strava to duplicate itself from scratch, which is why shopping for Fatmap outright doubtless made extra sense on this occasion.
“Strava’s major aim is to be the digital expertise on the heart of lively individuals’s lives — that features providing individuals a holistic view of their lively way of life, irrespective of the place they dwell, which sport they love or what gadget they use,” Horvath mentioned. “This idea fuels a lot of our strategic considering and product roadmap. For acquisitions particularly, we discover these that may speed up our strategic imaginative and prescient to create the most effective subscription service for lively individuals serving the biggest lively group on the earth.”
Whereas Fatmap is included within the U.Okay. and has a part of its workforce based mostly there, the majority of its 50 staff are unfold throughout places of work in France, Germany and Lithuania. Strava mentioned that it’s protecting the Fatmap group in tact, and every will proceed to report back to Fatmap founder and CEO Misha Gopaul, who will now function VP of Product at Strava and report back to Strava’s chief product and know-how officer Steve Lloyd.
Whereas Strava isn’t revealing how a lot it paid for Fatmap, the startup had solely raised round $8 million so the deal is unlikely to interrupt the financial institution for Strava. What it’ll do, although, alongside its different two current acquisitions, is make Strava a stickier proposition for a higher variety of individuals — not simply biking and operating for which Strava is healthier identified.
