Map company secures funds - $400,000 to help market interactive off-road guide

A Wausau software company that sells interactive maps detailing more than 100,000 miles of trails for snowmobilers and other off-road travelers will announce today it has raised $400,000 in its first venture financing round.

U.S. Trailmaps Inc., which finished second in the 2006 Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest, pulled in the funding from Fitchburg-based Kegonsa Seed Fund.

The financing followed a $160,000 commitment the company received in July from individual angel investors.

"Our dream is, say they get all the snowmobile trails -- that you can whip out your cell phone on the trail and find the three nearest liquor stores or restaurants and their phone numbers," said Ken Johnson, general partner at Kegonsa Seed Fund.

In the next few years, the type of content available will differentiate wireless phone companies rather than phone features and accessories, Johnson said. He says it's likely the phone companies will be buying the kind of information that U.S. Trailmaps offers.

U.S. Trailmaps will use the money from both financing rounds to more aggressively pursue the $600 million recreational vehicle market, and also to expand into hiking, camping, hunting and fishing, said Eric Antonson, the company's vice president of operations.

"This latest investment will help U.S. Trailmaps break out and become more of a regional and even national player in that market," said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

"They've got strong technology, an identifiable niche, and I think this funding is really going to help them crack into the cell phone carrier market and become a service that's available virtually anywhere there's cell phone coverage."

U.S. Trailmaps, founded in January 2005, has nine employees and produced revenue in 2005, Antonson said.

The company has mapped more than 7,000 miles of summer all-terrain vehicle trails in Wisconsin, and more than 100,000 miles of snowmobile and winter ATV trails in Wisconsin, Michigan and other states, including parts of the East Coast and the Western U.S. The interactive maps also give information about businesses like gas stations, lodging and restaurants near the trails.

U.S. Trailmaps sells its mapping software via CDs or its Web site at www.ustrailmaps .com, and buyers can download the information to GPS units.

Antonson and several others plan to exhibit their products at upcoming snowmobile product trade shows in seven Eastern states, including Maine and New York, he said.

The two big digital mapping content providers for streets and highways are Navteq and Tele Atlas, Antonson said. He says U.S. Trailmaps isn't aware of any companies making interactive trail maps.

"We're playing in a really big market that's not been penetrated well," he said.