# High-Level Overview
Felt is a cloud-native, collaborative GIS (Geographic Information System) platform that democratizes mapping technology for teams and organizations.[2] Rather than building maps exclusively for specialized GIS professionals, Felt enables anyone—from urban planners and energy developers to government agencies and climate researchers—to create, edit, and share spatial data in real time.[1][2]
The company addresses a fundamental accessibility problem: traditional GIS software is complex, siloed, and difficult for non-specialists to use, yet mapping has become essential for everything from infrastructure planning to emergency response.[1] Felt solves this by bringing the entire spatial stack into the browser with an intuitive, design-first interface.[3] The platform handles the technical complexity behind the scenes—geocoding addresses, matching boundaries, and parsing geometry—so users can focus on visualization and collaboration rather than data wrangling.[4] This positions Felt as a critical enabler for organizations managing physical assets, from renewable energy infrastructure to EV charging networks.
# Origin Story
Felt was founded in 2021 by Sam Hashemi and Rachel Zack, both veterans of Remix, an urban mobility platform that achieved significant scale.[2] Sam Hashemi, a designer and second-time founder, previously led interface design for NASA missions, including the Mars Curiosity rover, before co-founding Remix—which was eventually sold to Via for $100 million.[2] Rachel Zack brings deep expertise in policy and climate strategy, having led policy initiatives at Remix while working across local government and transportation planning.[2]
The founding story reflects a classic "scratching your own itch" narrative: their shared frustration with the limitations of traditional GIS tools at Remix motivated them to build the intuitive geospatial platform they wished had existed.[2] Rather than accepting the complexity and specialization that defined the industry, they set out to create mapping software designed for everyone involved in planning the physical world, not just specialists.[2] The company is based in the Bay Area and has grown to over 20 employees.[2]
# Core Differentiators
# Role in the Broader Tech Landscape
Felt operates at the intersection of several powerful trends. First, spatial intelligence is becoming critical infrastructure for the energy transition, climate adaptation, and urban planning—domains where traditional GIS tools have created bottlenecks.[2] As organizations deploy renewable energy, EV charging networks, and climate resilience projects, they need faster, more collaborative ways to visualize and coordinate physical assets.
Second, Felt rides the democratization wave that has transformed software across industries—from no-code platforms to AI-assisted development.[2] Just as Figma made design accessible to non-designers and Airtable made databases approachable for business users, Felt is removing the specialist gatekeeping around geospatial analysis.
Third, the company benefits from cloud-native infrastructure maturity. By building entirely in the browser rather than as desktop software, Felt avoids the friction that plagued earlier GIS tools and enables seamless real-time collaboration—a capability that was technically infeasible a decade ago.
Finally, Felt's timing aligns with urgent infrastructure challenges: wildfire response, renewable energy deployment, and climate adaptation all require rapid spatial coordination across teams. The platform's ability to support both quick sketches and time-sensitive operations positions it as essential infrastructure for crisis response and long-term planning.[1]
# Quick Take & Future Outlook
Felt is well-positioned to become the default mapping platform for the next generation of infrastructure and climate work. As organizations increasingly recognize that spatial intelligence drives operational efficiency and better decision-making, demand for accessible GIS tools will accelerate. The company's focus on ease of use, real-time collaboration, and AI-assisted workflows addresses the exact pain points that have limited GIS adoption beyond specialists.
The trajectory suggests Felt will expand its influence in three directions: deeper integration into enterprise workflows (through APIs and platform partnerships), broader adoption across climate and energy sectors, and continued AI-driven automation that further lowers the barrier to entry. The question is not whether spatial collaboration becomes mainstream, but whether Felt can maintain its design-first philosophy and accessibility focus as it scales to serve larger enterprises—a challenge that has derailed many developer-friendly tools in the past.
Felt has raised $39.1M in total across 5 funding rounds.
Felt's investors include Kevin Hartz, AirAngels, Alt Capital, Astanor Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Energize Ventures, Flex Capital, Footwork, Forerunner Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Greylock, InterWest.
Felt has raised $39.1M across 5 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $15.0M Venture Round in July 2025.
