Geopipe / Company Spotlight
VCET portfolio company Geopipe explains its revolutionary technology and future roadmap.
In a world where technology blurs the line between reality and imagination, one company stands out for its approach to bridging these realms.
VCET portfolio company Geopipe creates highly detailed, city-scale 3D models, enabling users to explore, create, and interact with environments that closely mirror the real world. Geopipe currently offers three cities – New York City, Washington D.C., and Boston – that can be accessed on various 3D-compatible software platforms.
Geopipe’s product has many applications. While it initially gained traction within the gaming and simulation industries – think games that want to integrate city-like environments – it can also help urban planners, developers, and emergency personnel simulate real-world environments.
“It’s very useful for crowd simulations, training autonomous vehicles, or training first responders in real-world environments,” explained Chief Science Officer and VCET member Thomas Dickerson. “We work with other companies that have the data capture capabilities. And then we basically provide the missing link of taking that raw sensor data and making it usable. On the one hand, it’s data capture folks, on the other hand, it’s data presentation.”
In 2016, Geopipe took its first steps when Dickerson and Christopher Mitchell participated in a summer incubator program at New York University. The pair had met on an online forum while trying to connect graphic calculators to the internet. Various project ideas followed, but they kept circling back to the idea of bringing real-world environments into virtual realms.
Since then, the company has grown significantly, now employing 15. In addition to Dickerson, Lorenzo Orders, Chris Deguise, and Christi Kroll also work out of VCET, while the other employees are either remote-based or located in New York City.
Geopipe’s vision extends toward comprehensive coverage of the Earth. Their roadmap includes targeting major global cities and gradually expanding their offerings to include areas with high user demand. Balancing the long-term roadmap with short-term customer demands is a delicate task, but Geopipe’s team thrives on tackling these challenges head-on.
“Last November, we launched our next-gen version of New York, which we made free to anybody,” Dickerson said. “We’re at three now and our goal is six cities by the end of the year.”
As Geopipe continues to expand its reach, it’s leading the charge toward a future where the lines between reality and virtuality become aligned.
“There’s basically an infinite playground for creativity and expression,” Orders said. “You can look at the same area of the city and say, ‘I have a million ideas of what I could do right here at this moment.’ And it’s always amazing to like, look at that and say, ‘You know what, I want to do one of those things today.’ And then who knows what I’ll do there tomorrow?”
To learn more about Geopipe, visit their website. To hear CSO Thomas Dickerson appear on VCET’s Start Here podcast, click here. If you would like to be spotlighted, have an idea for an article, or have any feedback, please contact Blaise Siefer, blaise@vcet.co.
