In an unique replace to EU-Startups, Eindhoven-based Maps Untold, a TravelTech startup, has raised €350k in funding to formally launch its AI-powered personalised metropolis information platform in two months time.
The spherical noticed participation from Rabobank and the Leisure Ontwikkel Fonds, and the funds will likely be used to finish the corporate’s minimal marketable product, increase its consumer base, and validate its scalable enterprise mannequin.
“We’re utilizing this funding primarily to finalise our minimal marketable product, scale in customers and validate our enterprise mannequin additionally on scalability,” Founder Dennis van Ravenstein advised EU-Startups. “Moreover, we’re enhancing our information infrastructure and algorithms to make sure complete protection throughout Europe and past.”
Based in 2021 by Dennis van Ravenstein and Gabriella Gomes Branco, Maps Untold is taking over conventional gamers like Tripadvisor by delivering hyper-personalised journey suggestions, eradicating the litter of generic ‘prime 10’ lists and infrequently untrustworthy on-line critiques.
The startup leverages AI to offer travellers with distinctive solutions based mostly on their tastes, pursuits and former experiences. For instance, customers reply just a few easy questions—resembling the place they wish to have espresso or favorite previous journey spots—and the platform delivers a curated listing of hidden gems, offbeat cafés, and areas not often present in mainstream journey guides.
The corporate’s advice engine attracts on thousands and thousands of knowledge factors and integrates seamlessly with exterior digital environments together with lodge apps, tourism platforms, and reservation software program. Its know-how is obtainable freed from cost to companions, who profit from added worth and co-generated income by way of bookings and ticket gross sales.
Maps Untold’s mannequin additionally reportedly helps native economies by directing guests towards unbiased companies and lesser-known venues, aiming to encourage extra sustainable journey habits.
The newest funding injection will likely be used to shine the platform forward of its upcoming official launch in roughly two months. A part of the funding can also be earmarked for infrastructure and algorithm enhancements, which is able to make sure the system can present correct and personalised suggestions throughout Europe and ultimately past.
The corporate has set formidable objectives: by the tip of the yr, it goals to exceed 250,000 month-to-month lively customers by way of integration companions and generate no less than €10k in month-to-month recurring income—key milestones to show its monetisation and progress technique.
In an more and more crowded digital journey area, Maps Untold is betting that customised experiences and an anti-algorithm method to discovery will attraction to trendy travellers.
As conventional guidebooks and review-driven websites wrestle to remain related, this younger Dutch enterprise is positioning itself as a compelling various within the evolving journey ecosystem.
