Banister: Google used its mobile game Ingress to crowdsource free mapping data
Cyan Banister · "Dig Through Your Couches. SpaceX Needs It." Cyan Banister on Luke Nosek's Pitch · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Jul 10, 2026 · at 45:22
Long Journey Ventures GP Cyan Banister explains her investment thesis on Niantic, realizing Ingress was a crowdsourced mapping engine while at Google.
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“Google ultimately is a mapping company, They're gathering points of information. They're getting these players to take pictures of it, categorize it, tell them exactly where it is, and to scan that, that, that information. It's basically like free mapping data.”
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