Location-base startup HipGeo raises $500K

A new service that automatically records your whereabouts

Want to have a constant monitor on your whereabouts, from which gas station you drove through to the coffee shop you just bought your latest latte in, all without having to check in to services, like Foursquare or Gowalla? Or maybe you want to have an alert that pops up on your phone letting you know the exact time your friend landed at the airport. 

Pretty soon you'll have such a service.

HipGeo, a startup trying to help people automatically record places they've been to, announced Wednesday that it's raised $500,000 in initial funding from Morado Venture Partners, an early-stage VC firm started by Ash Patel, a former Yahoo engineering executive, as well as Mike Marquez, formerly of CBS Interactive, and a partner at Code Advisors. Other angels include Galen Buckwalter (former chief scientist at eHarmony) and Robert Bingham.

At the moment, the LA-based startup is still in private beta. You have to input your email address on their website and wait to be invited into the service.

But the proposition is pretty simple. HipGeo automatically records the places you've been and puts it together in a report that can be private, or shared with others.

Eventually, HipGeo will provide alerts. For parents, they can track their children and get an alert when they arrive at school and when they left, said Rich Rygg, founder and CEO of HipGeo. Another possible feature in the near future will be an ability to check into places, or check in using Foursquare, he said. As for a future business model, HipGeo will be focused on local offers, said Rich. For instance, a person with HipGeo might soon be alerted to events or special offers when they enter a certain city.

HipGeo is currently in the leaderboard of the Vator Splash LA competition.

(I'll keep updating this post, once I get more information.)