Mapo Tapo closes a €1.15 seed round

In our previous community interview, we introduced Mapo Tapo, the startup that connects outdoor sports enthusiasts by organizing sports trips around the world. Today, we’re excited to share that Mapo Tapo has closed a €1.15 million seed round. This round, combining equity, grants, and debt instruments, welcomes significant institutional investors to the company, which had already raised a pre-seed round of €355,000 (with contributions from international Business Angels and B4i - Bocconi for Innovation). With the newly raised capital, Mapo Tapo aims to accelerate the growth of travelers on its platform and further develop its technology to support local sports guides.

Mapo Tapo is an innovative startup born in late 2020, co-founded and led by Daniele Calvo Pollino. The founding team also includes Alessia Fontanari, Antonio Cambise and Alfredo Lanzetta. The platform mapotapo.com allows outdoor sports enthusiasts to book trips with certified guides and find fellow adventurers to share the experience.

The financing round was made possible thanks to the support of the Argo acceleration program, CDP Venture Capital's traveltech accelerator, promoted by the Ministry of Tourism and managed by Zest (co-investor), alongside VeniSia, with contributions from Intesa Sanpaolo, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Human Company, and Scuola Italiana dell’Ospitalità.

After selecting Mapo Tapo in its first batch, Argo supported the company’s growth with a €200,000 follow-on, part of a total €750,000 round, also backed by Banca Finint, Doorway, Encelado Ventures, and several business angels.

In addition to the equity raised, the round included a Smart and Start loan from Invitalia and additional contributions from the Ministry of Tourism, for a total of €400,000.

“Although the Italian ecosystem can be complex, it offers numerous opportunities for fundraising,” said Daniele Calvo Pollino, CEO of Mapo Tapo. “Combining different sources of funding can be an ideal strategy, reducing dilution; an alternative to the classic American model based on simpler instruments but higher valuations. CDP Venture Capital, Zest, and the Ministry of Tourism have been essential partners, not only from a financial perspective but also strategically and operationally. They helped validate our business model and refine our internal processes. Thanks to their support, we’ve placed the professionalism of certified local guides at the center of our value proposition, a unique element in the Italian and international travel tech landscape.”

The round also provided an opportunity to expand the pool of stakeholders and advisors through the vehicle Encelado. Other new advisors and investors include Martino Bagini (investor and former COO of Docebo), along with renewed trust from existing advisors such as Giuseppe Cavallaro (ex-McKinsey), Yves Warnant (serial entrepreneur), and William P. Keenan (Business Angel and former professional investor).

Mapo Tapo continues to pursue the goal of maximizing value for local sports guides and outdoor enthusiasts. Daniele Calvo Pollino added, “While the goal has remained the same, the last three years have been a real rollercoaster: we’ve tested various business models and believe the current one is a winner. The real challenge now is scaling it.”

To date, Mapo Tapo has organized trips for over 1,500 people from 40 countries, with a Trustpilot rating of 4.7 from more than 300 verified reviews. International reach has always been part of the startup's DNA: 60% of its sales come from abroad, a figure that continues to grow.

Mapo Tapo’s goal is to accelerate growth, aiming to triple its number of travelers in the next 12 months. “Our strength is the community, which consists of 100,000 outdoor enthusiasts from around the world. It’s exciting to bring athletes from the USA, UK, Northern Europe, and even Kuwait and Costa Rica to places like the Sicilian countryside or other hidden gems. The challenge is to develop a tech product that allows local guides to reach outdoor sports enthusiasts in a widespread and personalized way. We want to offer something scalable, tailored to sports guides, and relevant to travelers, keeping the community at the heart of it all” concluded Daniele Calvo Pollino.

The expansion of the offering continues with a wide range of experiences: from climbing trips in Europe to over 100 experiences in hiking, ski mountaineering, high-altitude excursions, snowshoeing, and freeride skiing around the world.