Screenshot from what3words.com

What3words is a simple and genius idea with one of the worst business models of all time

What3words is crowdfunding for new shareholders... and seeking exits for current ones.

4/23/26 12:13PM

In the midst of the US-Iran war, a clip went viral as a CNBC anchor wrestled with President Trump’s latest threats to wipe out an entire civilization — did his comments present more downside risk or upside risk for investors?

Where’s the humanity?! Late-stage capitalism won’t ever catch me out like that, I thought, as I swiped away to watch a day-in-the-life video of a protein-maxxing 32-year-old man who works in a flavor of finance I hadn’t seen on TikTok before.

Anyway, What3words, a completely free-to-use platform that’s literally saved lives, is really bad because it loses money.

The app, which maps every 3-by-3-meter square in the world onto a unique address made up of three random words is just one of those very good, very simple, and therefore very rare ideas. If you’ve fallen into a hole and need rescuing, you can communicate a precise location, avoiding conversations like “I was on this road somewhere in the middle before I fell.” Finding your friends at a huge stadium, directing a delivery to a specific access road, or sending funny triptychs to your friends all become a breeze with the 57 trillion squares the company has mapped.

But as businesses go, looking purely at the numbers, What3words doesn’t live up to the brilliance of its concept... at all.

Since its founding in 2013, the company’s balance sheet shows cumulative losses of 146 million pounds ($197 million). In 2024, its most recent full year for which we have information, the company did just 2.1 million pounds in revenue... which is a little under $3 million... which is a little under what the typical US McDonald’s restaurant brings in each year (~$4 million).

The McDonald’s restaurant also probably doesn’t spend 8x its revenue on administrative expenses — an outlay that meant an operating loss in 2024 of some 14 million pounds for W3W. In 2022, that was a 46 million-pound loss, for what it’s worth, so it’s progress of a kind.

We don't know exactly how the company did in 2025, as public accounts haven't yet been posted on Companies House — although they shouldn't be far away, with last year's filing appearing on April 17th.

need.more.cash

Now, the company is running another crowdfunding campaign with a post on the popular Crowdcube website showing that What3words is raising at a pre-money valuation just shy of 50 million pounds, with 1,591 investors already taking.the.plunge. That is a huge haircut to the 250 million-pound valuation that The Times reported the company had reached in 2020. It’s also the second time the company has tapped retail investors, the brilliant Louis Ashworth wrote up the first one for FT Alphaville two years ago.

The raise is set to be a mix of primary and secondary equity, giving some employees or investors an exit route from the company’s cap table. In fairness to What3words, revenue did double in 2024, as the company pushed its enterprise product and API access.

Nevertheless, an 80% haircut to its peak valuation, secondary sellers, a lack of institutional buy-in, and a second go at the crowdfunding table, especially for a company that spent 8x its revenue on operating expenses, is a lengthy string of red flags — red bunting, perhaps.

For what it’s worth, I hope I’m wrong. There are genuine reports that the app has saved lives and, though there are plenty of flaws in the algorithm — one user on Reddit pointed out that reworked.sheets.lions and reworked.sheet.lions are within 2 kilometers of each other, but separated by a mountain valley — it would be a shame if the company collapsed altogether.

It maybe just doesn’t make sense as a profit-seeking enterprise.

One thing I do respect is that there are only two very short mentions of AI on the fundraising page — it hasn’t yet gone full Allbirds.

Tom Jones6/24/26

Prime Day is here again and Amazon’s subscription service has never been more popular

Well, it’s that time of year again: many have made their wish lists, people are scraping together the money they’ve saved to pick out a perfect gift, some are presumably leaving out refreshments for the weary delivery drivers and, more and more, drones.

It’s Amazon Prime Day — meaning that it’s the second day of the four-day promotional event that Amazon still calls Prime Day — of course, and it’s even come early this year, with the company bringing the period into late June from July, when it’s been traditionally held for the last five years.

The Prime Age

Alongside the eyes and endless clicks that the arbitrary stream of listicles on “The Best Prime Day Deals” that almost every media outlet pours into, Amazon will also be cheering the fact that there’s now more Prime users than ever before to devour the retailer and its sellers’ sometimes-contested “discounts.” Indeed, according to the latest annual estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), there were just over 200 million American shoppers using Amazon’s massive subscription service at the end of 2025.

Max Knoblauch6/15/26

Electronic Arts launches a platform to put more ads in its games

Video game publishing giant EA launched a new platform on Monday designed to make the process of selling immersive ad space in its popular games easier.

The company says the platform, called EA Advertising, allows brands to “integrate directly into gameplay through dynamic, real-time placements, from stadium signage to custom in-game content.”

More so than other studios, EA has incorporated advertising into its most popular titles. As Kotaku points out, the company’s ad efforts stretch as far back as 2006. Several of its sports franchises already feature partnerships with brands like Visa, Lowe’s, Red Bull, and PepsiCo.

In-game advertising hasn’t exactly been embraced by fans, but industry experts expect it to ramp up as companies seek more revenue to offset higher games budgets and surging memory costs. EA rival Take-Two has taken a different approach, with CEO Strauss Zelnick recently saying the company was “not at risk of doing brand partnerships” in the forthcoming “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and that ads in full-price games seems “unfair.”

The $55 billion deal to take EA private, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is set to close at the end of this month. Being the largest leveraged buyout in history, EA will likely look for more ways to boost revenue to cover interest payments.

Electronic Arts Makes Push for Ad Dollars Tied to Sports

Millie Giles6/11/26

JM Smucker says it sold $1 billion worth of Uncrustables in FY2026

After years of booming sandwich sales, JM Smucker has finally earned a billion-dollar crust.

On Tuesday, the company reported results for fiscal year 2026, highlighting better-than-expected profits driven by higher prices for coffee and sweet baked goods. However, at another point on the earnings call, CEO Mark Smucker pointed to one particularly jammy figure: in line with previous forecasts, the company sold $1 billion worth of its (almost always) crustless sandwiches, Uncrustables, in the last year alone.

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

Paramount reportedly offers concessions to resolve multistate antitrust investigation

Paramount has reportedly offered up some concessions in an effort to prevent an antitrust lawsuit by California and about 10 other states, according to Bloomberg reporting on Monday.

Reuters first reported on the potential suit from a group of unnamed states last week, which could throw a wrench in Paramount’s plans to buy rival Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood megamerger.

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

Paramount Offers Concessions to Head Off State Antitrust Lawsuit

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

$98B ⛽

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”