Focused on empowering walkers and hikers, HiiKER has guided close to 400,000 hikers around the world.
Outdoors app HiiKER has raised €500,000 in a seed investment round led by Fuel Ventures as well as Enterprise Ireland and several private investors.
The business previously received €100,000 in investment from the NDRC at Dogpatch Labs in 2021.
“We have seen over 200% growth in clicks for the summer months this year versus 2021”
HiiKER is now focused on growing its community and expanding its team before launching into the US market in 2023.
Founded in 2020 by Paul Finlay, and joined by co-founders Eoin Hamilton, Pete Britton, and Mark Finlay, these hiker-cum-hackers have combined their experience and passion to help guide more than 380,000 hikers around the world.
HiiKER has become known as one of the best places to find hiking trails and excellent quality maps from world’s top mapping providers.
Scaling new heights
Until this summer, the product was focused on the long-distance hiking market.
Hiiker’s core product is its mobile app. Available both on iOS and Android, it enables hikers of all experience levels to plan, navigate and track their hiking and walking adventures.
Equipped with a battle-tested product, the team developed the next generation of HiiKER in June 2022 for the more casual hiker, paving the way for huge growth opportunities.
In recent years (particularly due to Covid-19), there has been a boom in outdoor recreation.
Leveraging the accelerated interest in hiking, the team has utilised SEO as its strongest route to market.
“Since CTO Mark Finlay has joined the team, we have seen a month-on-month growth in organic clicks of about 47%,” said Eoin Hamilton, HiiKER CMO. “We have also seen over 200% growth in clicks for the summer months this year versus 2021. This is exciting to see as we enter the busiest period of the year for hiking.
“We have a very engaged community that want to see us succeed. They love the product, but are not afraid to tell us where we need to improve. This enables us to build a better product that they love and will ultimately shout about.”
The team is now enabling hikers to plan and share hikes with family and friends. “We are all about getting people outdoors in nature, and we are building tools to make that easier” Paul Finlay, Hiiker CEO added.
Main image at top: Paul Britton, Hiiker CXO; Mark Finlay, CTO; Paul Finlay, CEO; and Eoin Hamilton, CMO
