Every month, the team at e27 runs a monthly Startup of the Month poll where we pick the best startup to give it some extra coverage and attention that it deserves. Five startups are selected internally by taking into account idea, team, funding and founders. Three eventually make it to the final round, where we take in votes from our Telegram community.
The winner for March is a Singaporean startup UNL:// which aims to build “the internet of places” using a 3D grid to give every cell a unique location ID.
Building location inclusivity
There is a prevalent example of how digital changes have impacted businesses and everyday life. In the early 2000s, tourists and locals in London were using their extremely reliable and highly respected “black cab” service.
These servicemen had all the places in London memorised! All drivers were meant to pass the Knowledge, which said they had to remember over 25,000 streets in London. This was a big deal because this was not a regular driving examination, and not everyone who took the test passed it.
However, with the entry of services ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft, there was no longer a need for London’s black cab service”.
These services relied on Google Maps. With more people using it, the need for digitised addresses is increasing. However, even though Google Maps have made it increasingly more comfortable for people to find locations, there are still places which lack digital addresses.
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According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), approximately 20 per cent of addresses in developed countries, and 80 per cent in developing countries, are not verified. Moreover, an estimated amount of four billion people don’t have an address.
UNL tries to solve this problem by using its technology. The firm has come up with a way to divide the world into a 3D grid of micro-cells, so that rural and even urban locations have unique ID addresses.
“Most of the world either doesn’t have an address or is poorly addressed,” said William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director at MOX, one of the investors of the company. “UNL’s ability to bring an accurate location to developing and emerging markets will enable services from delivery to micro-loans for the next four billion internet users.”
The startup, which aims to bring on the Internet of Places, also wishes to target locations that are not easily accessible such as rural areas, urban, indoor spaces, underground and even airspace aiming to build inclusivity.
The backers
UNL has recently raised US$2M in early-stage funding round from a diverse set of investors co-led by mapping and location platform solutions HERE Technologies and early-stage deep-tech VC fundElev8.vc.
Other investors who joined the round include US-headquartered VC SOSV and its programme Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX), deep-tech investors SGInnovate, and digital venture capital platform Venturerock.
“Even today, billions of people lack a physical address, hampering their ability to access both essential services and reap the benefits of the digital economy,” said Hsien-Hui Tong, Head of Venture Investing at SGInnovate.
“This issue exists not only in the developing markets but also in rural communities found deep in large, sprawling countries. UNL is tackling this problem with its unique addressing solution, which can break the barrier between the physical and digital worlds, enhance connectivity and contribute to the growth of smart cities,” he added.
According to the company, the new money will be used to develop its technology further and for expansion in Asia. The company is currently building local teams in Singapore, Indonesia, India, and Japan.
“UNL is a whole new way to think about locations. It’s about the economic impact and unlocking places to become the gravity points for location-based services. And it’s about economic inclusion: bringing four billion unaddressed people into the global digital economy,” CEO and Founder Xander van der Heijden said.
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Image Credit: UNL, henry perks
The post Startup of the Month, March: UNL://, a smart addressing platform for unmapped locations appeared first on e27.