IN THE LOOP A three-word-solution to the Middle East’s logistic woes spent my weekend at guess.mineral.soils.” Don’t be taken aback if a friend in Dubai says that to you: those three words refer to the unique codes assigned to Dubai’s popular landmark Palm Jumeirah by UK-based what3words’ universal addressing system. what3words assigns three-word addresses to locations by segregating the entire world into global grids of 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares. By doing so, the startup wants to ensure that “everyone and everywhere now has an address,” and the use of words instead of long complex coordinates makes it simpler to find and share locations accurately. Noting how the location simplifying solution has the potential to make life easier for everyone -from navigators to logistics companies to the government- logistics giant Aramex recently announced its investment of US$2.94
million in what3words. This investment forms a part of an $8.5 million Series B funding in what3words, involving previous investors Intel Capital and British funds Force Over Mass and Mustard Seed. According to a statement by Aramex, the company expects the address solution to complement Aramex’s e-commerce delivery activities, and assist it in its mission to improve last-mile delivery solutions across the region. “By integrating three-word addresses into our e-commerce operations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, we are now
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Entrepreneur august 2016
better able to reach more consumers worldwide, even those in difficult to access locations,” Hussein Hachem, CEO of Aramex, says in the statement. Aramex has already invested in a number of upstarts to strengthen its last-mile delivery including Grab.in and Logisure in India, Shippify in South America, and CashBasha in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. With a lack of standard addressing systems in the Middle East region, efficient logistics systems continue to be a key barrier in e-commerce ventures scaling up, with e-commerce businesses bearing huge costs in failed or delayed deliveries. what3words’ tool is in the form of a plug-in for businesses and individuals with their algorithm turning geographic coordinates into three-word addresses using a geocoder. Logistics software provider Blackbay, address verification platform Allies, and UKbased Direct Today Couriers are some entities that have already integrated what3words to their operations. Mongolia’s state-owned postal delivery service Mongol Post also adopted what3words as a national addressing standard in May 2016. With its latest raise, what3words plans to put the funds to use for further global expansion, to launch a new voice recognition product, develop its unique address system in several Asian languages, and support the growth of its team. The solution is currently available in 10 languages including English, Russian, French, Spanish, Turkish and others (Arabic is also on the cards), and is used in more than 170 countries. what3words App
A scene from the 2015 Seedstars Summit in Switzerland
Bahrain to play host to Seedstars GCC 2016 Seedstars World, an emerging-markets focused entrepreneurship forum, is back this year to scout for promising GCC startups, and in a first, the action this time is centered around Bahrain. Seedstars GCC 2016, to be held on September 24, 2016 in Manama, will see startups from across the GCC pitted against each other in a pitch competition. A jury panel comprising of PierreAlain Masson, co-founder, Seedstars, Mohamed Altawash, founder, MBAN, and Trey Goede, Origination, Investment and Portfolio Management, Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures, will assess startup pitches to award promising seed stage startups. Besides pitching sessions, the event will also host fireside chats, keynotes and panel discussions. Two winning startups will represent the region in the global Seedstars Summit taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, to compete for investments worth over US$1 million. The global Seedstars Summit brings together key entrepreneurs, investors, corporates and institutions from the local ecosystem, offering opportunities to build business relationships with investors and other partners and accelerate growth. Workshops, panel discussions and keynote addresses are all part of the summit, in addition to the competition. At each local edition of Seedstars, 10-12 startups are pre-selected and given a platform to showcase their venture. Earlier, in May 2016, the UAE round of Seedstars, held in partnership with in5, saw nine startups present their ideas to a jury. Asafeer Education Technologies, a company that provides schools with an online Arabic digital library, won the first place and won a chance to participate at the global summit. Swiffix, an on-demand home and car service app, came in second place, and OTTAA Project, a visual communication platform for the speech impaired, came third.
IMAGES COURTESY ARAMEX, WHAT3WORDS AND SEEDSTARS
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Aramex invests US$2 million in what3words