5 up-and-coming outdoor & adventure startups you have to know about

As you might already know, we’re the biggest fans of startups and their products. With this first article, we’re launching our new topic about tech companies worth everybody’s attention.

The first five startups we want to introduce to you are the game changers in the outdoor & adventure industries — please, welcome.

Founded in 2009, onX is a Montana-based mobile apps company that provides maps for hunting, hiking & off-roading. 

The company provides the most accurate GPS mapping tech for outdoor enthusiasts, featuring offline land ownership maps. World-class GPS and mapping technologies present customized information to users tailored to their off-pavement activities and locations.

onX is also known as a startup that raised a striking funding of $20.3 million in a Series A, one of the most significant investments among startups based in Montana. The latest funding was raised in 2022 from a Series B round from Summit Partners and Madison ValleyPartners. 

“In many ways, the onX story represents the quintessential entrepreneurial journey. Eric founded onX to address a major gap in the outdoor recreation market and bootstrapped the business to an impressive scale,” said Greg Goldfarb, Managing Director at Summit Partners and onX board member.

Hipcamp, a San Francisco-based startup, is the most comprehensive resource for unique outdoor stays. Discover and book tent camping, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and glamping.

Founded to help people get outside, connect with nature, and find the right spots for them back in 2013, it has since grown into the most comprehensive resource for discovering and booking unique outdoor stays, including tent camping, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and glamping.

In 2021, Hipcamp closed its last funding round from a Series C round with $57 million and continued its rapid growth. The company has demonstrated an ability to scale quickly, expanding its offerings to include campsites, cabins, treehouses, and other unique lodging options.

Hipcamp became the world’s largest provider of outdoor stays and has raised a 460 percent increase in bookings since 2019.

Fatmap is a 3D mapping platform that provides detailed maps and information about outdoor destinations — the best skiing, hiking, and mountain biking routes moderated by qualified professionals. 

Fatmap was founded by mountain enthusiasts David Cowell and Misha Gopaul in 2013, and it has acquired 1.6 million registered users today. The critical thing that makes this product so unique is the maps of extraordinarily high quality made, thanks to the imagery from Digital Globe’s WV3 satellite.

On Jan 23, 2023, Fatmap was acquired by Strava, one of the most popular fitness apps used by millions of people to track their workouts and connect with other athletes.

That’s how Michael Gopaul commented on the acquisition: “We started Fatmap with a mission to make outdoor experiences more accessible. Where other map platforms have been designed for navigating streets and cities, we wanted to build a map designed specifically to help people explore. Joining forces with Strava opens up new exciting possibilities and will accelerate our progress to enable millions more people to explore the world’s wild places, safely and sustainably.”

Journee is a platform intended to provide an experimental traveling experience. They create tailored mystery trips based on the user’s travel taste and plans — the artificial intelligence secretly matches a destination and its preferences. 

Traveltech startup Journee was founded in 2019 by three friends and former Depop colleagues, Ed Tribe, Megha Chaturvedi, and James Gillard. Since then, the company has raised a total of £2.1M in funding over 4 rounds, with the last Seed round of £1.8M in Feb 2022. 

Journee has already recorded more than 1.5k bookings to over 52 mystery destinations and has a 4.9 rating on Trustpilot.

Maria Raga, one of Journee’s angel investors and a CEO of Depop (acquired by Etsy), said: “We were lucky to get to know Ed, Megha and James while they were at Depop and were impressed with their entrepreneurial spirit. They have a vision to make the world a better place by expanding people’s capacity to explore new cultures and have incredible travel experiences. I am excited to be supporting the Journee team’s ambitions in changing how people travel.”

GlobeSisters is a startup that organizes solo trips for women — a hospitality exchange platform tailored for women with a solid commitment to safety and security. 

Founded in 2021 by a Berkeley graduate, Paulina André, the startup was launched via Berkeley SkyDeck. Besides that, Berkeley’s StEP program for student entrepreneurs helped launch this social startup and find mentors and potential partners.

This year, the GlobeSisters mobile app was launched to empower women to travel alone, explore new destinations, and make new connections. Today the company’s community has over 1000 members who have completed over 200 trips.  

Almog Goldstein, Co-Founder, CEO of Beaches. App: “GlobeSisters team is building an incredible platform that aims to transform the way women can travel safely around the world. The founders, Pierre and Pauline, are super dedicated, focused, and motivated, which gives them a great advantage on the journey to fulfill their vision. I have the pleasure to see their progress each week as part of the Berkeley SkyDeck mentorship program, and I highly recommend them!”