TripAdvisor has acquired Citymaps, a New York City-based, social-mapping startup.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. A year ago, Citymaps raised a $6 million financing round — with Nokia Growth Partners, Coatue Management, and Acadia Woods participating. It has raised $12 million, to date.
Citymaps will remain a standalone brand.
When Tnooz profiled Citymaps four months ago, its CEO and founder Elliot Cohen argued that his 16-person company had found a niche in the online navigation market.
Said Cohen:
“The incumbent players [e.g., Google Maps and Apple Maps] are designed for one thing, to get you from Point A to Point B, and they do that terrifically well. We wanted to create an interface that uses maps as a discovery tool.”
To that end, Citymaps — available via app, mobile browser and desktop website — takes a more dynamic approach. On the back end, it aggregates information from several dozen sources, including Wikitravel, Viator, OpenTable, Groupon, and Travelzoo (for deals) and Songkick and Ticketmaster (for events and performances).
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