
1. Technology overview
Felt is an AI-native GIS platform built by founders Sam Hashemi and Rachel Zack, who previously helped cities plan transit at Remix. The company has raised USD 35 million from investors including Bain Capital and Energize Capital, and targets the problem that spatial data stays locked in specialist desktop tools instead of reaching planners, crews and decision-makers.
Felt runs in the browser and connects live to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, cloud buckets, STAC, WFS/WMTS and Esri services. Users analyse millions of features with spatial SQL or ask Felt AI in plain language to build maps, dashboards and apps, stream and analyse raster imagery, and collect data offline with the iOS and Android Field App. Developers embed maps with the JavaScript SDK, REST API, Python, webhooks and an MCP server. Customers span cities and government, utilities, infrastructure engineering, real estate, insurance and agriculture.
2. Highlighted features & specifications
- Felt AI: Turns plain-language questions into spatial analysis and live maps.
- Cloud sources: Connects Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Esri and S3 without ETL.
- Web GIS analysis: Supports spatial SQL, geocoding, drive-time areas, H3 hexagons and raster statistics.
- Dashboards: Builds no-code charts and filters linked to map layers.
- Field App: Captures inspections, photos and forms offline on iOS and Android.
- Developer platform: Offers JavaScript SDK, REST API, webhooks and an MCP server.
3. Potential application
A Vietnamese water or power utility can map assets and let field crews log inspections offline. A retail or real estate firm can rank candidate sites by population within a drive time. An urban environment company can publish public maps of waste collection or tree inventories for residents.
4. Benefits
Non-specialists can answer spatial questions such as flood exposure or crew routing in plain language, reducing dependence on scarce GIS staff. Live connections to data warehouses remove ETL work, and viewers are free on every plan. Fastned, Leaf Agriculture and Toole Design Group report faster analysis and self-serve insights. SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliance with regional hosting support enterprise use.
5. Market trends & opportunities
GIS is shifting from desktop software toward cloud and AI-assisted tools that connect directly to enterprise data warehouses. Vietnamese and Southeast Asian utilities, city agencies and real estate firms face a shortage of GIS specialists, making natural-language analysis and collaborative web maps attractive for digital transformation.
6. Other information
Founded by Sam Hashemi and Rachel Zack; raised USD 35 million from Energize Capital, Footwork, Bain Capital, Moxxie and others. Terms of service are governed by California law with venue in San Francisco. Built on open-source MapLibre and Tippecanoe with a QGIS integration; hosting available in the US, EU, UK, Canada and Australia.
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