French startup Mapstr just released version 1.0 of its nifty map app, but it’s already thinking about the next steps. The company just raised $800,000 from angel investors and is working on a set of new features for the coming months.
As a reminder, Mapstr is a bookmarking service for places. It’s a hybrid between a map app and a note-taking app, and it works really well if you want to keep track of your favorite places or add new places where you want to go.
You can add as many tags as you want to your bookmarks in order to filter them out later using the tag drawer (restaurant, sushi, cocktails, etc.). It’s also a great way to check opening hours, get a restaurant phone number and more.
I talked with Mapstr founder Sébastien Caron last week about what he wants to do with the app, and it seems like many people are already excited about version 1.0. Released last month, Mapstr already attracted 50,000 users who saved over 400,000 places.
One of the most important features of the last release is the ability to create a profile to sync your map and share some of your favorite places with your friends. When you add someone as a friend, you can see their public map and discover new places.
This is a hint of the company’s vision — Mapstr wants to leverage these bookmarks to help you discover new places. Here are a few of the upcoming features.
First, you’ll receive a notification when you’re near a place that you already saved so that you don’t forget about your bookmarks. Second, the company is working on the ability to add your photos to your places, so that you remember the menu of a restaurant and more. Third, the company is thinking about official maps. For instance, a magazine could create a map of its favorite new restaurants and Mapstr users could follow the map to get these places right inside the app.
Finally, the company is thinking about expanding to other platforms, such as Android and the Apple Watch. In other words, many things are in the pipeline, and today’s initial funding round will let the team experiment for a little while with new features and platforms.
