City Exploration App Launches in Exeter to Combat Decline of Independent Businesses

KOMPAS, a London based city exploration startup, chooses Exeter as their 6th city worldwide to launch in. KOMPAS combines curated content with machine learning-powered personalisation to bring city exploration into the 21st century. The company was founded by 2 Exeter University alumni, Tom Charman and Olivia Higgs.

KOMPAS’ goal in Exeter, as said by CEO Tom Charman, is to “promote the incredible and diverse local and independent stores, restaurants, bars, cafes, and other great businesses which don’t have the marketing budget of multinational corporations.”

The launch, which is unusual for the U.K. due to the tendency of startups to expand to bigger European cities rather than inside the U.K., is part of KOMPAS’ growth strategy. The Head of Growth, Daniel Johnson, is quoted as saying “We believe it’s a missed opportunity for U.K. startups to ignore the smaller cities in our country. We aim to build market dominance in the UK before expanding”.

KOMPAS will recommend the best places in Exeter to you, whether you’re on a night out and craving some food, or are out with the family and need to get some pick-me-up coffee.

KOMPAS was established in 2015, after the founding team realised that there was a huge opportunity, believing that the market had lost touch with their customers, who were placing an increasing demand on tailored, and personalised experiences. Since then, they’ve got on to raise a round of angel investment, and have won multiple awards for their innovation in travel and technology, with all of the founding team recently being highlighted as ones to watch by startups.co.uk. Recently, KOMPAS has also been won the Visa Everywhere Initiative and a partnership with Visa, secured a partnership with London Midland, featured as one of the top 500 deep-tech companies in the world by Hello Tomorrow, was named as one of the hottest travel startups of 2017 by The Europas, and more.

Notes to editors

KOMPAS was founded in April 2015 and currently operates in Berlin, Birmingham, London, and Munich with further cities to follow later this year. They have closed an angel round of funding, but are now raising a Pre-A round of funding, with that money being used to develop algorithms, apply for patents, and scale the company into new cities.

Operating out of London, the team of 11 are focused on building something that will undoubtedly change the way that people explore a city, saving them time, but most importantly allowing them to see the best bits of a city based on the interests of the end-user. The goal of KOMPAS is to move people away from generic high street chains, to those that have more of a character, creating a unique experience for their customers.

KOMPAS has won a number of awards, and recently secured commercial partnerships with London Midland and Visa, with further companies to follow in the near future.


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About KOMPAS

KOMPAS is a dependable city exploration companion that uses smart algorithms to personalise content to each individual user based on their interests. We present relevant reviews and a hassle free way of getting around the city. You can customise your journey in a way that suits exactly what you want to do. Find unique, relevant and undiscovered locations in your own back yard. Street art, underground jazz bars and much more is just waiting to be found. We're able to scale in any city, in short, intense periods of time, by producing unique, relevant and unique content.