Tanner Davis, creator of Kiba Outdoors, recounts losing his 11-year old brother for several hours during a family hunting trip; with walkie-talkies out of range and out of date, all anyone could do was cross their fingers and hope for the best.

Stories like Davis’ are not unique. You go on a group camping trip, a few people split up and get lost, and it takes hours to find your group again. Davis and his team have decided to tackle this issue with some pretty revolutionary technology.

Kiba Outdoors creates smart radios that use satellite connection to create communication avenues. Similar to apps like onX, Kiba allows users to navigate outdoors when out of range of cell service.

However, Davis and his team have taken it one step further and developed Kiba into a means of communication as well. Users can send messages and voice memos and even share their location with each other.

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Davis recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in information systems, where he joined the BYU-Sandbox competition and created Kiba’s software. Davis and his best friend Seth Anderson started drafting ideas and outdoor design nearly 18 months ago; they then recruited team member Michael Colton to handle their electrical engineering.

When asked how Provo has helped Kiba in its genesis, Davis mentioned what a startup-friendly city Provo is in addition to its residents’ love of the outdoors. Thanks to the generous support of Provo City, the team has graduated from the Sandbox program to its very own office in Provo’s Startup Building.

It has been a huge step for the company to go from casual meetings and separate assignments to a shared office space where they can discuss projects in real time and meet with investors. Provo has provided them a helpful professionalism that is hard for startup companies to find elsewhere.

Over a year into their work, Davis and his team are pleased to announce that pre-orders will be available to the public this spring! For all Provo residents who are anticipating seeing the snow melt and bare peaks appear on Mount Timpanogos, we recommend signing up for Kiba’s email notifications as well; you just might be the first to see their products in action. For more information, visit https://kibaoutdoors.framer.website.