Started by the former Uber data visualization team, Unfolded.ai is a geospatial analytics startup that deals with extensive geospatial data visualization systems. At Uber, the team was given a massive task to deal with geospatial datasets, which can easily reach into the petabytes and further easily transmitted and visualized, especially on mobile.
Sina Kaushik, Shan He, Isaac, Brodsky, and Ib Green, the core team of Unfolded.ai worked for several years at Uber. Describing the work at Uber, Kaushik said, “We were tasked with this massive planetary dataset. And if money wasn’t an object, how would you architect this so that it would have the best performance?” The team built up what is today Uber’s extensive geospatial data visualization system.
The code developed for Uber including elements of their engineering which were open-sourced through two libraries: Kepler.gl, a web application that visualizes geospatial datasets; and Deck.gl which is an extensible application to visualize and process geospatial datasets. Eventually, working at Uber, this bunch realized that these services could be offered to several businesses. Kashuk said, “What we realized is that these libraries are all mature and they are ready to go to the market, and there is an opportunity beyond usage at Uber, and we thought that we can take these technologies to the next level.” This is when the four left Uber and created Unfolded.ai in late 2019.
The startups’ core product is Unfolded Studio, which acts as a backend server for applications built on top of Kepler.gl, a kind of front-end library. The team recently has raised more than $6 million during a seed round led by Shvet Jain from S28 Capital with participation from other firms including Frontinalis Ventures. The company’s first check was through Auren Hoffman, and its first institutional VC was IA Ventures.
The team’s first project was with some consulting projects, including Google Earth.
