Navimatics Corporation

What Navimatics Corporation does

Navimatics Corporation is a privately held, founder-run software company that develops cross-platform navigation applications for recreational boaters, private pilots, and celestial navigation enthusiasts. The company, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington and operating with 1–10 employees, is led by founder and CEO Bill Zissimopoulos, a former Microsoft Developer Lead and Netscape Systems Architect who is also an instrument-rated private pilot and avid sailor.

The product portfolio centers on marine navigation through Charts&Tides for iOS and Mac, which renders continuous NOAA and CHS vector charts and layers tide, current, GPS routing, AIS targets with Closest Point of Approach alerts, and an offline copy of the ActiveCaptain cruising guidebook. Complementary products include Celestial (a celestial navigation package for iOS and Android performing sight reductions with a 1980–2099 almanac) and Aero Charts (a VFR+IFR aviation chart application built from FAA data that was withdrawn in 2012 to comply with new FAA/AeroNav digital publication requirements). Underlying the apps is a set of proprietary frameworks — GeoKit/GeoApp for geo applications, TideKit for tidal computations, and CelNav for celestial almanac work — supported by the open-source XPF cross-platform toolkit and DarwinKit UI components, both under BSD 3-clause license.

Revenue is generated primarily through a freemium model: base iOS and Mac apps are free downloads with detailed NOAA/CHS marine charts sold as in-app purchases, supplemented by $49.95 per-region Garmin-compatible chart licenses sold direct, one-time Celestial purchases, and physical Charts&Tides redemption cards distributed through marine retail outlets. Distribution runs almost entirely through Apple's Mac and iOS App Stores, Google Play/Android Market, and the company's own website, with all buyers being individual consumers; no institutional customers, channel partnerships, or external funding are disclosed in the input.

Name

Navimatics Corporation

Legal name

Navimatics Corporation

Website

https://navimatics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Navimatics Corporation is a Kirkland, Washington-based developer of cross-platform navigation apps — Charts&Tides (marine), Celestial, and Aero Charts — for individual boaters, pilots, and celestial navigators, monetized via freemium in-app chart purchases, Garmin chart licenses, and marine retail cards.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marine Navigation Software

NAICS

Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing (334511), Navigational Services to Shipping (48833)

SIC

Search, Detection, Navagation, Guidance, Aeronautical Sys (3812)

akta.pro primary industry

Marine Navigation Systems (ECDIS, Radar, GNSS, AIS) (IMAJAJAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Marine Safety & Navigation Electronics Retail (PFDs, EPIRBs, GPS, VHF) (CRAMAIAH)

Keywords

• Marine navigation software
• Electronic nautical charts
• Aviation chart apps
• Celestial navigation tools
• GPS chart plotting

Headquarters

HQ city

Kirkland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. App Store Sales with In-App Chart Purchases: Freemium model where base applications are free to download but detailed marine charts are purchased within the app. Charts for US and Canada are available as in-app purchases, with 2016 chart releases.
2. Garmin Chart Licenses: Marine charts for Garmin GPS devices sold as one-time licenses at $49.95 per coastal region (East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast, Great Lakes). Charts are derived from NOAA ENC and updated regularly.
3. Celestial Navigation App Sales: One-time purchase price comparable to the cost of a Nautical Almanac for a single year. Available for iPad/iPhone and Android devices.
4. Physical Redemption Cards: Charts&Tides cards sold at marine retail outlets that allow redemption for electronic marine charts on iOS devices. Single card unlocks chart on up to 5 devices with up to 10 reinstalls per device.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Navimatics develops cross-platform navigation applications for Mac, iOS, Android, and Garmin devices, providing electronic marine charts (NOAA/CHS vector cartography), aeronautical charts (FAA VFR+IFR data), and celestial navigation software. The base apps are free to download, with revenue generated via in-app chart purchases and one-time licenses for detailed marine and aviation chart data.

Product overview

Navimatics Corporation offers a portfolio of navigation products spanning marine, aviation, and celestial navigation domains. The core product line includes Charts&Tides for iOS and Mac (marine navigation with NOAA/CHS vector charts, tides, AIS, ActiveCaptain integration), Celestial for iOS and Android (celestial navigation with almanac and sight reduction), Aero Charts for iPad/iPhone (VFR+IFR aviation charts from FAA data), and Garmin Compatible Charts for Garmin GPS devices. These products share underlying frameworks: GeoKit/GeoApp powers the chart-based applications, TideKit handles tidal computations, and CelNav provides celestial navigation algorithms. Navimatics also open-sourced XPF (cross-platform frameworks) and DarwinKit (iOS/Mac development components) under BSD license. Charts are available as in-app purchases with physical redemption cards also sold at marine retail outlets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Charts&Tides: Marine navigation software for Mac and iOS devices providing access to charts, tides, ActiveCaptain information, GPS navigation, and AIS support
• Celestial
• Aero Charts
• Garmin Compatible Charts

Products and services

• Charts&Tides for iOS Free-to-download marine chart plotter and navigation app for iPad and iPhone providing NOAA and CHS vector charts, tide and current visualization, GPS navigation with waypoints/routes/tracks, AIS support with CPA alerts, and offline access to ActiveCaptain marina, anchorage, and hazard data.
• Charts&Tides for Mac Free-to-download marine navigation app for Mac providing NOAA and CHS vector charts, tides, currents, GPS navigation, AIS target tracking with CPA alerts, route/waypoint/track management, and integrated access to the ActiveCaptain cruising database, designed for both at-home trip planning and on-boat navigation.
• Celestial One-time-purchase celestial navigation app for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android that performs sight reductions, calculates fixes, presents them visually, manages sights on multiple trips, assists in sight planning, and includes a complete Nautical Almanac (1980–2099) of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars.
• Aero Charts VFR+IFR aviation chart app for iPad and iPhone incorporating FAA and other government data including Class B, C, D, E and Special Use Airspace, airways, fixes, holding patterns, navaids and airports with full flight plan support and automatic waypoint sequencing when device GPS is available.
• Garmin Compatible Marine Charts One-time regional license ($49.95 per coastal region: East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast, Great Lakes) for marine charts compatible with Garmin marine GPS devices and Garmin MapSource software, derived from NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts and updated regularly, sold via the company's FastSpring storefront.
• Charts&Tides Card Physical and digital redemption cards distributed through marine retail outlets that grant access to electronic marine charts within the Charts&Tides iOS app; a single card unlocks the chart on up to 5 devices with up to 10 reinstalls per device.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ActiveCaptaincoreTechnology or IntegrationActiveCaptain is an interactive cruising guidebook integrated into Navimatics' Charts&Tides applications. The partnership provides access to thousands of marinas, anchorages, hazards, and local knowledge. Charts&Tides stores the entire ActiveCaptain database offline for access without internet connection. Users can also contribute updates and reviews to ActiveCaptain from within the app.
• NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)coreTechnology or IntegrationNavimatics charts are derived from NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC). The company uses official NOAA data for US waters, including all NOAA ENC charts and thousands of tide and current stations.
• CHS (Canadian Hydrographic Service)coreTechnology or IntegrationCharts for Canadian waters include ENC charts from multiple CHS regions (ATL-A, ATL-B, ATL-C, CEN-A, CEN-B, CEN-C, PAC-A, PAC-B) along with tide station data for dozens of Canadian locations.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Garmin Pilot: Garmin Pilot is Garmin's iPad aviation navigation app with FAA charts, weather, and flight planning. It is the alternative private pilots compare Aero Charts against, with the backing of Garmin's regulatory and chart-refresh resources.
• iNavX: iNavX is an iOS-first marine chart plotter that supports multiple chart providers (NOAA, MapMedia, Navionics) and AIS, aimed at the same recreational sailor and powerboater users as Charts&Tides, with a similar freemium-plus-chart-purchase model.
• Navionics (Garmin): Navionics is the dominant consumer marine navigation app (iOS, Android), now owned by Garmin. It offers NOAA vector charts, tides, ActiveCaptain-style community data, and AIS — overlapping almost feature-for-feature with Charts&Tides and the same recreational boating segment.
• ForeFlight: ForeFlight is the leading consumer and operator-facing iPad aviation chart and flight-planning app in the US. It directly overlaps Aero Charts' VFR/IFR, weather, and flight-plan use cases for private pilots.
• C-MAP (Navico): C-MAP produces marine electronic charts (vector and raster) sold to both consumers and OEMs, and powers nav apps behind several chartplotters. It competes head-on with the Garmin-chart line that Navimatics sells against in the consumer chart market.
• SeaIQ (SeaPilot): SeaPilot/SeaIQ is a marine chart plotter app for iOS and Android with NOAA and other chart sources, AIS support, and a similar recreational boater target user to Charts&Tides.

Broad incumbents

• Jeppesen (Boeing): Jeppesen produces certified aeronautical charts, terminal procedures, and flight planning data widely used by operators and many consumer aviation apps via data feeds. It is the upstream data authority whose distribution terms created the regulatory challenge Navimatics hit on Aero Charts.
• Garmin Marine (BlueChart): Garmin produces BlueChart marine cartography and a full hardware chartplotter stack, and now owns Navionics. The BlueChart product line is the direct competitor to Navimatics' Garmin-compatible charts and exerts hardware-level pricing pressure on consumer chart apps.

Emerging players

• Reeds Almanac / Starpath Digital: Starpath produces digital celestial-navigation training and almanac tools and serves traditional/celestial navigation users — the same niche that buys the Celestial app. They overlap with Celestial's sight-reduction, almanac, and sight-planning features.

Others

• ActiveCaptain: ActiveCaptain is the crowdsourced marina/anchorage/cruising-guide data layer that Navimatics integrates into Charts&Tides. As an ecosystem data provider it is a content supplier and platform partner rather than a direct chart-app competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubbitbucket.org/navimatics
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/navimatics-corporation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Navimatics Corporation