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What3words raises £5m in crowdfunding to become ‘global standard’

what3words crowdfunding
Image credit: what3words

Mapping platform what3words has currently raised over £5m in its crowdfunding campaign, surpassing its original goal of £1m.

The London-headquartered firm’s Crowdcube campaign has received backing from over 7,300 investors, who will become shareholders in the private company.

Founded in 2013, what3words has created mapping software that divides the planet into 3m by 3m squares and gives each a unique string of three random words. For example, part of Big Ben in London is “flows.verbs.dome“.

According to its Crowdcube campaign, what3words has already received over £100m in total funding to date.

What3words said on its crowdfunding page that it plans to use the funds to “replicate our strategy around the world, making what3words a global standard for location”.

The company’s mapping tech is used by notable companies such as DPD, Domino’s Pizza, Mercedes and Lamborghini.

It generates income through licensing its platform to other businesses but is free for personal use.

Devon-based Crowdcube is a platform that helps UK-based entrepreneurs to host equity crowdfunding campaigns.

Users of Crowdcube include consumer hardware company Nothing, which last year raised £1m in 54 seconds for its transparent earbuds and fintech Tred, which raised £500,000.

This week German logistics service provider GLS announced it would allow deliveries to a what3words square.

And last month what3words announced its mapping technology would be integrated into automaker Jaguar Land Rover’s vehicles.

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