relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message what3words founded march 2013 founders jack waley cohen chris sheldrick headquarters westbourne studios london website what3words.com what3words stylized what3words is a geocoding system for the simple communication of locations with a resolution of 3 m. what3words encodes geographic coordinates into 3 dictionary words for example the statue of liberty is located at planet.inches.most . this differs from other location encoding systems in that it displays three words rather than long strings of numbers or letters . what3words has a website apps for ios and android as well as an api that enables bidirectional conversion of what3words address and latitude longitude coordinates . contents 1 investment 2 design principles 3 users 4 awards 5 references 6 external links investment edit founded by jack waley cohen and chris sheldrick 1 what3words launched in march 2013 and received usd 500 000 of seed funding in november 2013 2 and added a further usd 1 000 000 in march 2014 . 3 4 5 on november 3 2015 what3words closed a 3.5 million series a funding round led by intel capital with li ka shing s horizons ventures and several of what3words original angel investors also participating . it brought the total raised by the u.k. startup to 5 million after it topped up its initial 500 000 seed with a further 1 million in 2014 . 6 on june 29 2016 what3words closed a 8.5 million series b round led by aramex 7 design principles edit what3words uses a grid of the world made up of 57 trillion squares of 3 metres by 3 metres . each square has been given a 3 word address . what3words has named the 17 trillion squares on land with 3 words in 10 other languages in addition to english french russian spanish german portuguese swedish turkish swahili mongolian . 8 each what3words language uses a wordlist of 25 000 words 40 000 in english as it covers the sea as well as land . the wordlists go through multiple automated and human processes before being sorted by an algorithm that takes into account word length distinctiveness frequency and ease of spelling and pronunciation . homophones and variant spellings are treated to minimise any potential for confusion and offensive words are removed . 8 the what3words algorithm actively shuffles similar sounding three word combinations around the world to enable both human and automated error checking . the result is that if a three word combination is entered slightly incorrectly and the result is still a valid w3w reference the location will be so far away from the user s intended area that it will be immediately obvious to both a user and an intelligent error checking system . 8 the what3words system works via a proprietary algorithm as opposed to a database meaning that the what3words core technology is contained with a file around 10mb in size . what3words originally sold oneword addresses which were stored in a database for a yearly fee 9 but the feature has been canceled . 10 the main claimed advantage of what3words is memorability and unambiguous nature of words for most everyday and non technical uses . 11 12 users edit aid & humanitarian united nations disaster and humanitarian reporting app un asign 13 tropical health mosquito net tracking 14 navigation & transit navmii 15 offline navigation app pocket earth 16 offline navigation app tripgo 17 multimodal transit app riogo 18 multimodal transit app for rio olympics asset management pollinate energy solar lighting installation in the slums of india 19 in2care mosquito trap maintenance in tanzania 20 metcom fire hydrant management in colorado 21 videre solar lighting installations in botswana 22 delivery aramex global delivery and logistics 23 carteiro amigo parcel and post delivery in the favelas of brazil 24 mongol post adopted what3words for postal deliveries throughout the country . 25 festivals & events glastonbury festival 26 towersey festival 27 farnborough international airshow 28 travel hedonists guide to online city guides 29 southern star printing guide books for ireland 30 awards edit grand prix for innovation at the cannes lions international festival of creativity . 31 the tech awards sobrato organization economic development award . 32 d & ad black pencil 33 ft ifc transformational business awards commendation for achievement in transformational technology 34 kpmg best british mobile startup 35 pwc great innovation challenge winner 36 accenture consumer innovation award 37 bt tech for good award . 38 references edit team . what3words . startup what3words gets usd 500 000 in seed round . venture capital post . location pinpointing startup what3words adds 1m more to its seed to flog more map labels . techcrunch . aol . what3words closes 1m to expand alternative to postcodes mapping service . startups.co.uk starting a business advice and business ideas . what3words adds 1m more to seed round . venture capital post . http techcrunch.com 2015 11 03 what3words series a https techcrunch.com 2016 06 29 addressing platform what3words closes 8 5m series b led by logistics firm aramex a b c about . what3words . lomas natasha 8 jul 2013 . location pinpointing startup what3words sells 10 000 oneword map pins in first week . techcrunch . what3words on twitter we did charge for that functionality but no longer offer it and access to the system is free . . 1 may 2015 . the best navigation idea i ve seen since the tube map . the spectator . 25 october 2014 . crannell c. w. ; parrish j. m. 1957 . a comparison of immediate memory span for digits letters and words . the journal of psychology interdisciplinary and applied . 44 319 327 . un disaster app includes three word addresses . ee publishers . http what3words.com 2016 02 tropical health miles stuart . navmii navigation app turns driving into a game uses what3words to make sure you never get lost again . pocket lint.com . http what3words.com 2016 03 pocketearth http what3words.com 2016 04 tripgo http www.thememo.com 2016 08 09 what3words is addressing rios mapping nightmare partner pollinate energy indian slum solar lighting & what3words . what3words . partner in2care mosquito traps & what3words . what3words . http what3words.com 2016 02 metcom http what3words.com 2016 06 videre https techcrunch.com 2016 06 29 addressing platform what3words closes 8 5m series b led by logistics firm aramex to address poverty we need addresses . the huffington post uk . mongol post adopts what3words as national addressing system . mongol post . 23 may 2016 . retrieved 19 june 2016 . https www.theguardian.com healthcare network 2016 jun 21 injured glastonbury app what 3 words http what3words.com 2016 08 towersey festival https www.geospatialworld.net news posts earth i what3words keep an eye on farnborough international airshow from above http what3words.com 2015 09 hedonists guide http what3words.com 2016 07 partner irish tourism guides adopt what3words diaz ann christine 26 june 2015 . what3words innovation grand prix cannes special cannes lions advertising age . adage.com . http www.mercurynews.com business ci 29110330 tech awards honor an array laureates http www.dandad.org awards professional 2016 creativity for good white pencil 25060 the world addressed https www.flickr.com photos 45442848 n05 27543176306 in album 72157666923588814 https home.kpmg.com uk en home media press releases 2016 02 what3words crowned best british mobile startup 2016 at mwc.html http www.pwc.co.uk who we are great innovation competition 2016.html https newsroom.accenture.com news accenture consumer innovation award winners announced.htm http www.tech4goodawards.com finalist what3words external links edit official website v t e geocoding systems administrative codes hasc nuts eu ons marc country codes sgc codes canada un m. 49 un airport codes iata airport code icao airport code country codes iana country code iso 3166 1 alpha 2 alpha 3 numeric ioc country code geodesic place codes global geohash geohash 36 georef geotude salb marsden square military grid reference system munich orientation convention natural area code open location code qdgc un locode utm what3words wmo squares north america fips country code fips 10 4 fips place code fips 55 fips county code fips 6 4 fips state code fips 5 2 sgc codes postal codes natural area code postal index number zip code telephony itu r country codes itu t country calling codes itu t mobile calling codes radio broadcasting maidenhead locator system historical qra locator sport ioc country codes retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title what3words & oldid 743737013 categories geographic coordinate systemsinternet properties established in 2013hidden categories npov disputes from august 2016all npov disputesofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages italianomagyarpolski edit links this page was last modified on 11 october 2016 at 00 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view