Kumu
Kumu is a cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform serving foundations, nonprofits, governments, and universities with systems mapping, stakeholder analysis, and social network visualization via freemium, Pro, and Enterprise tiers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2011
- HeadquartersSanta Clara, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kumu does
Kumu is a cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform that helps organizations understand complex systems, stakeholder networks, and cause-and-effect dynamics. Founded in 2011 by brothers Jeff and Ryan Mohr, the platform supports systems mapping, social network analysis, stakeholder mapping, community asset mapping, and concept mapping through specialized templates including causal-loop, geo, stock-and-flow, and systems-leverage diagrams. The core technology is built on CouchDB with AWS infrastructure and offers force-directed layouts, embeddable visualizations, and a built-in presentation/publishing layer.
The company operates a freemium product-led growth motion layered with enterprise field sales. The free Basic workspace offers unlimited public projects; the Pro workspace ($10/month flat plus per-project fees) adds collaboration features, custom branding, hourly backups, and Google Analytics tracking; and the Enterprise tier starts at $20,000 annually for 5 editing seats with self-hosted or managed AWS deployment, SAML-2.0 SSO, and data encryption at rest. Customer segments skew heavily toward the social sector—foundations (Hewlett, Gates, Omidyar), nonprofits (Humanity United, Earth Island, New Profit), multilateral/government bodies (World Bank, USAID), and universities (Stanford, Yale, Northeastern)—with enterprise field sales targeting regulated industries requiring compliance and data residency. The company also offers Sticky Studio, a collaborative whiteboard add-on, and maintains a Slack-based community, public gallery, and documentation hub as community-led growth channels. Kumu is privately held, bootstrapped, and operated by a small remote team with roots in Oahu and Silicon Valley.
Kumu firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kumu
- Legal name
- Kumu Inc.
- Website
- https://kumu.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2011
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Kumu is a cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform serving foundations, nonprofits, governments, and universities with systems mapping, stakeholder analysis, and social network visualization via freemium, Pro, and Enterprise tiers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Kumu industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Data Visualization Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Virtualization & Federation (HDAEACAH)
Keywords
Where Kumu is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Santa Clara
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Kumu business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Basic Workspace Subscription: Free tier providing unlimited public projects with basic features. Revenue generated from converting users to paid tiers.
- Private Project Fees: Charged per private project on Basic workspace ($9/month or $86.40/year). Private projects allow organizations to keep sensitive mapping work confidential.
- Pro Workspace Subscription: Flat fee of $10/month ($96/year) plus per-private-project fees ($20/month or $192/year). Includes collaboration features, hourly backups, custom branding, and activity feeds.
- Enterprise Licensing: Annual licensing per 5-seat packages starting at $20,000/year. Includes self-hosted or managed cloud deployment options with dedicated infrastructure and enterprise security features.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier with unlimited public projects |
| Subscription | Annual | Enhanced collaboration workspace at $10/month |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise deployment starting at $20,000/year |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Kumu product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kumu is a cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform that enables users to create stakeholder maps, systems maps, social network maps, community asset maps, and concept maps to understand complex relationships and system dynamics. It offers tiered access via a free Basic workspace with unlimited public projects, a paid Pro workspace with collaboration features, and a Kumu Enterprise deployment starting at $20,000/year per 5-seat package with self-hosted or managed cloud options.
Product overview
Kumu is a unified cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform. The core Kumu product (kumu.io) serves as the primary offering, enabling users to create stakeholder maps, systems maps, social network maps, community asset maps, and concept maps. The platform offers a modular architecture with tiered pricing: the free Basic workspace with unlimited public projects, a Pro workspace upgrade ($10/month) adding collaboration features like activity feeds and real-time commenting, and Kumu Enterprise for secure on-premise or managed cloud deployment ($20,000+/year). Complementary products include Sticky Studio (collaborative whiteboard) and specialized templates like the Geo Template for geographic visualization.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Sticky Studio: A collaborative whiteboard for untangling complexity together, offered as a related product by Kumu.
Products and services
- Kumu (Core Platform) Cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform that enables users to create stakeholder maps, systems maps, social network maps, community asset maps, and concept maps to understand complex relationships and system dynamics.
- Kumu Enterprise
Quantifiable outcome
- Organizations report improved clarity, alignment and confidence in their strategic approaches after using systems mapping
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Kumu
Customer profileNamed customers17 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Kumu technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature6 records
Kumu partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- StripeminorStripe handles all payment processing with full PCI-compliance. Kumu does not store any sensitive billing information on its own servers. Payments are securely managed through Stripe's industry-standard infrastructure.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Kumu competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- InsightMaker: A web-based systems mapping and causal-loop diagramming tool aimed at educators and practitioners. Closest direct peer to Kumu's systems-mapping and causal-loop template offering, serving overlapping audiences in the social-impact and academic segments.
- Polinode: Organizational network analysis (ONA) and stakeholder mapping SaaS. Direct competitor to Kumu's stakeholder mapping and SNA features, with a comparable enterprise survey-and-visualize workflow.
- NodeXL: Network analysis and visualization tool integrated with Excel. Targets a similar social network analysis use case as Kumu's SNA template, primarily serving researchers and analysts.
- OrgVue: Organizational design and people analytics platform with network mapping. Comparable to Kumu's enterprise stakeholder and informal-network mapping use cases, targeting larger enterprise buyers.
- Vensim: Systems dynamics modeling software used to build causal-loop and stock-and-flow diagrams. Direct competitor in the systems-thinking methodology that anchors Kumu's templates, serving academic and consulting users.
- STELLA (isee systems): Systems dynamics modeling and simulation software for causal-loop and stock-and-flow analysis. Highly comparable to Kumu's systems mapping capabilities, with a longer history in academic and policy environments.
Broad incumbents
- Miro: Massively scaled collaborative whiteboard platform used for diagramming, mapping, and systems thinking. Competes with Kumu at the visualization layer with far greater template breadth, integrations, and a much larger sales motion.
- Lucidchart: Enterprise diagramming and visual collaboration platform owned by Lucid. Overlaps with Kumu on systems-style diagrams and stakeholder visualizations as part of a much broader diagramming suite.
- Mural: Enterprise collaborative whiteboard with strong templating and facilitation features. Competes for the same team-mapping and stakeholder-mapping dollars as Kumu Enterprise.
Emerging players
- Gephi: Open-source network visualization and analysis platform. Adjacent competitor to Kumu's SNA features — free, more technical, and widely used in academic and research settings where Kumu also operates.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Kumu social profiles
Digital presenceKumu compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Kumu financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kumu leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Kumu funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kumu M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kumu
What does Kumu do?
Kumu is a cloud-based relationship mapping and visualization platform that enables users to create stakeholder maps, systems maps, social network maps, community asset maps, and concept maps to understand complex relationships and system dynamics. It offers tiered access via a free Basic workspace with unlimited public projects, a paid Pro workspace with collaboration features, and a Kumu Enterprise deployment starting at $20,000/year per 5-seat package with self-hosted or managed cloud options.
Is Kumu a public or private company?
Kumu is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Kumu founded?
Kumu was founded in 2011. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Kumu based?
Kumu is headquartered in Santa Clara, United States, in the North America region.
How does Kumu make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Basic Workspace Subscription is the primary driver. The others are private Project Fees, pro Workspace Subscription and enterprise Licensing.
Who are Kumu's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are InsightMaker, Polinode, NodeXL, OrgVue, Vensim and STELLA (isee systems). Broad incumbents are Miro, Lucidchart and Mural. Gephi is listed as an emerging player.
Does Kumu have an API?
Yes. Kumu has a public API. Documentation is available in the Enterprise section of docs.kumu.io, including guides for Enterprise features such as SSH Access and Single sign-on. Developer documentation is at docs.kumu.io/enterprise/index.md.
What industry is Kumu in?
Kumu's product category is Data Visualization Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEACAH, Data Virtualization & Federation. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7370.