Unfolded.ai Raises $6M Seed for Geospatial Analytics

Several years ago, Uber faced a significant challenge. As the rapidly expanding ride-sharing company served millions of customers and tens of thousands of drivers across an increasingly global network, it needed to provide users with more precise map displays showing the location of their approaching ride and its planned route. The difficulty lay in the immense size of geospatial datasets, which can easily reach into the petabytes – how could such data be efficiently transmitted and visualized, especially on mobile devices?

“Our team was focused on this large-scale planetary dataset,” explained Sina Kashuk, describing the initial goal of Uber’s data visualization team, “and we asked ourselves, assuming cost was not a factor, how would we design a system to achieve optimal performance?” This question spurred a team of four engineers and data scientists to find a solution. Kashuk, Shan He, Isaac Brodsky, and Ib Green collectively dedicated approximately 16 years to Uber, where they and their colleagues developed Uber’s comprehensive geospatial data visualization system. He, Brodsky, and Green initially joined Uber around 2014 and 2015, with Kashuk arriving later in 2017.

Fortunately, the code they created wasn’t confined to the Uber application. Key components of their work were released as open-source libraries: Kepler.gl, a web application for visualizing geospatial datasets, and Deck.gl, an adaptable framework for processing these datasets and preparing them for visualization. Kashuk noted that Green played a leading role in the creation of Deck.gl, and He subsequently developed Kepler.gl, utilizing Deck.gl as its foundation. Both libraries continue to be actively maintained on GitHub and by Uber’s Visualization team.

Over time, the team recognized the potential to offer services built upon these libraries to other organizations, responding to the growing interest in their open-source projects. “We came to the conclusion that [these libraries] had matured and were ready for commercialization, and that there were opportunities beyond their use within Uber,” Kashuk stated. “We believed we could elevate these technologies further.” Consequently, the four individuals left Uber and collaborated to establish Unfolded.ai in late 2019.

The company’s primary offering, Unfolded Studio, functions as a backend-as-a-service for applications leveraging Kepler.gl (which itself is solely a frontend library), managing aspects such as data handling and server communication. Specifically, the product is engineered to integrate diverse geospatial datasets, enabling them to interact within a single, unified interface.

The team initially supported their operations through consulting engagements, including a project with Google Earth, before securing a seed funding round to expand the team and pursue their broader vision. According to Kashuk, Unfolded has raised over $6 million to date, with a seed round finalized last week, led by Shvet Jain at S28 Capital and including participation from firms like Fontinalis Ventures. Auren Hoffman made the initial investment, and IA Ventures was the first institutional venture capital firm to invest.

Early adopters of the Unfolded platform include companies in the agtech sector, such as Indigo Agriculture, which is dedicated to promoting sustainable farming practices. Unfolded anticipates opportunities in numerous markets where location data is critical to business operations, but currently remains focused on platform development and preparing for future customer growth.