Social Mapping: Game Not Over Yet

Augustine: Congrats Platial!!!

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

As Google expands their social mapping features, competitors are regrouping and refocusing. Kleiner Perkins backed Platial, headquartered in Portland, is announcing the acquisition of chief competitor Frappr this morning. Frappr co-founder Kun Gao will join Platial as part of the deal.

Platial CEO Di-Ann Eisnor says the combined companies will reach 15 million unique users per month and will store 100 million user-generated location-based points of data, including photos, videos, reviews, stories and people (see examples here and here). 25% of all distributed map widgets on the Internet will be served via the platform.

Frappr never took outside financing. Platial raised two rounds. They took $800,000 in angel funding in October 2005 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, Georges Harik, Jack Dangermon, and Ron Conway. In February 2007 they raised an additional $2.6 million from Keynote Ventures, with participation from most of the previous investors.