Monarcha: Turn maps into data

Turn maps into data

Monarcha is an AI-powered georeferencing platform built for mining, infrastructure, and land intelligence teams. It turns scanned maps, plats, and land documents into accurate, queryable spatial data in seconds. Aligning historical maps, plats, and survey drawings to real-world coordinates is tedious work. Most teams either hire specialists or skip it entirely, leaving critical spatial data locked in documents. Monarcha lets users upload any document and get a fully georeferenced, queryable GIS layer in 90 seconds or less. Want to learn more? Check out monarcha.ai

Active Founders

James Spokes

Founder

James is a Co-Founder of Monarcha. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Cornell University and led Cornell Digital Tech & Innovation, the university's largest undergraduate engineering project team. Previously, he designed for Station-F backed startup Loop, and built a multi-agency alerts systems at Mark43, where he was also first exposed to GIS software. He also is an accomplished photographer, having published books and won prizes at the International Photography Awards.

James Spokes

Founder

James is a Co-Founder of Monarcha. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Cornell University and led Cornell Digital Tech & Innovation, the university's largest undergraduate engineering project team. Previously, he designed for Station-F backed startup Loop, and built a multi-agency alerts systems at Mark43, where he was also first exposed to GIS software. He also is an accomplished photographer, having published books and won prizes at the International Photography Awards.

Everett Lee

Founder

Everett is a Co-Founder of Monarcha. He graduated early from Cornell Engineering with a degree in Computer Science and began a CS master's, before dropping out to build Monarcha. He did research as part of Cornell's AI Innovation Lab under Ayham Boucher, and led Machine Learning Engineering at Cornell Data Science. Previously, Everett worked as an AI Engineer building computer vision models at WEX and as a Data Scientist at Avalara.

Everett Lee

Founder

Everett is a Co-Founder of Monarcha. He graduated early from Cornell Engineering with a degree in Computer Science and began a CS master's, before dropping out to build Monarcha. He did research as part of Cornell's AI Innovation Lab under Ayham Boucher, and led Machine Learning Engineering at Cornell Data Science. Previously, Everett worked as an AI Engineer building computer vision models at WEX and as a Data Scientist at Avalara.

Company Launches

Monarcha - The AI GIS Platform

See original launch post

Hey everyone 🗺️ 👋

We are James and Everett, and we’re excited to announce Monarcha.

TL;DR:

We are building the AI-native GIS platform. Monarcha automates the slow, fragmented workflows in mapping and spatial analysis:

Uploading and enriching datasets, done instantly
Running 50+ spatial tools, just by describing what you need
Producing styled maps, no SQL or Python required

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHBTKKXARY\

Problem

Geospatial data is everywhere, but using it is deeply technical. Legacy tools like ESRI or QGIS require specialists with years of training, which makes even simple questions inaccessible to most teams.

Solution

Monarcha makes advanced spatial analysis simple and accessible. Anyone who needs maps can now run advanced geospatial analysis in seconds, no GIS expertise required.

How it works

Users connect their data and manage all spatial workflows through a single conversational interface.

They can see the analysis steps, provide feedback, and watch the map update instantly. The agent also can also spot and fix missing data or edge cases.

For example, users might say:

“Find all parcels zoned residential within 10 minutes of transit.”
“Overlay wildfire risk maps with proposed housing sites.”
“Score neighborhoods by access to schools, parks, and jobs.”

It feels like having a full GIS team on demand, but faster, cheaper, and accessible to anyone.

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About Us

The founders met at Cornell, where we led the university’s largest engineering and data science teams.

James: Built a multi-agency alert system at Mark43. Designed at Station-F backed startup Loop. Led Cornell Digital Tech & Innovation.
Everett: Researcher at Cornell AI Innovation Lab. Led ML Engineering at Cornell Data Science. AI Engineer at WEX and Data Scientist at Avalara.

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If you know planners, developers, environmental teams or have worked with GIS check out monarcha.ai or reach out to us at founders@monarcha.ai.

YC Photos