what3words is a innovative global addressing system built for people. It is a global grid of 57 trillion 3mx3m squares where each square has been allocated a unique & fixed 3 word address.

Why?

Around 75% of the world suffers from inconsistent, complicated or no addressing systems.

This means that around 4 billion people are invisible; unable to report crime, to get deliveries, receive aid, or exercise many of their rights as citizens because they simply have no way to communicate where they live. It means that in remote areas water facilities, schools, hospitals and refugee camps are difficult to locate and manage.

Even in countries with more advanced address systems, people get lost, packages aren’t delivered, and businesses and tourist attractions don’t get found.

Just a 1% improvement in the UK government's addressing data would deliver a £25bn saving for the economy.

The only existing global solution is latitude and longitude coordinates, a string of 18 digits & letters that is impossible to remember, difficult to say and easy to make errors when communicating.

Our patent pending algorithm converts these complex coordinates to 3 simple dictionary words and back again.

Using words means non-technical people can find any location more accurately and communicate it more quickly, more easily and with less ambiguity than any other system.

what3words is a team of 8 with seed funding, an advisory board containing representatives from Medecine Sans Frontières, The UN & The World Bank.

Our API is public and being used by consumers, companies, aid organisations and governments.

We are on a mission to change the world.

what3words is a new innovation that has addressed the unaddressed.

Our tiny algorithm code converts complex coordinates to 3 usable words and back again.

We have our own app and site and what3words is also a plug-in for businesses and individuals, via an API, to enhance their own products and services with simple and precise addressing.

It works across all platforms, browsers and devices. It can be used with voice input and offline with no data connection. Words can easily be written, said, printed or shared digitally. It is available in 8 languages including English, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish with more, including Swahili & Arabic coming. The algorithm recognises which language you are using.

We use between 25,000 and 40,000 words per language, have removed offensive words, homophones (e.g. sale & sail), and have shuffled similar sounding (e.g. plurals) 3 word addresses as far away from each other as possible so it’s obvious if you have made a mistake.

For ease of use the algorithm has allocated more common words to densely populated places in the countries that speak that language. As 3 word addresses are pre-assigned and fixed they can be used instantly, cost effectively and with no concern of any changes.

We intend to support fair and equitable use. what3words will always be free for individuals to use on our site and apps. If, or when we charge for access to our API we will employ a structure that provides qualifying organisations including humanitarian and not-for-profit entities with a range of free and discounted usage plans

We are growing by adding more partners, languages and premium functionality including AutoSuggest to intelligently detect mistakes and CompassMode, allowing you to navigate with no map.

We have received $3m of seed funding over the past 1.5 years.

Our goal is to become the global standard for communicating location; giving everyone and everywhere a simple address.

Better addressing can improve customer experiences for the navigation, tourism and sports industry, drive efficiencies for delivery and logistics firms, allow the growth of ecommerce and improve lives through more efficient humanitarian aid and disease management.

We are working with our partners to market the benefits to their users. 3 words are currently accepted by 20+ companies including Navmii – a navigation app with 25 million users, Kartverket – the Norwegian mapping agency, Ulmart – Russia’s Amazon, and Esri – the largest supplier of Geographic Information software in the world.

We are also working with Carteiro Amigo to addressing the Brazilian favelas, have completed a successful drone pilot project with Skycap to help stop poaching and spot mines in Africa and have just returned from a World Bank mission to the DRC to investigate using 3 words to address hospitals, schools and water points.

Last year the UN published a Think Piece recommending the use of what3words when disaster reporting through social media and we have just been pre-selected as a candidate for the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers Programme.