SINGAPORE — UNL, a smart addressing platform for navigation and location-based services, has raised $2M in early-stage funding to build the Internet of Places.

UNL gives anyone and anywhere a unique, smart address to power the hyper-location-based economy. “UNL is a whole new way to think about locations. It’s about economic impact and unlocking places to become the gravity points for location-based services. “– said Xander van der Heijden, CEO and founder of UNL. – “And it’s about economic inclusion – bringing 4 billion unaddressed people into the global digital economy.”

The investment comes from a mix of strategic backers co-led by HERE Technologies, global tech leader in mapping and location platform solutions and Elev8.vc, a Singapore-based early stage deep-tech VC fund.

Speaking about the partnership, Giovanni Lanfranchi, CTO and Senior Vice President, HERE Technologies: “We are delighted to be supporting UNL as a key strategic investor to help drive growth and foster it’s mission of economic inclusion through the power of location. We look forward to working together and leveraging our strong R&D capabilities in order to pioneer innovative potential.”

“UNL will enable hyper-local ‘phygital’ commerce experiences, as well as introduce the next billion people to the digital economy – a combination of future-tech and social impact that strongly resonates with us.” – said Aditya Mathur, Managing Director of Elev8.vc – “We are pleased to be backing UNL in building the next-gen architecture for location-based services.”

Other investors that joined the round include SGInnovate, one of Singapore’s first dedicated Deep Tech investors and the US-headquartered global venture capital fund SOSV and its program Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX).; and Amsterdam-based Venturerock – a digital venture capital platform and ecosystem of founders, backers and venture builders.

Hsien-Hui Tong, Head, Venture Investing, SGInnovate said, “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. 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 their unique addressing solution, which can break the barrier between the physical and digital worlds, enhance connectivity and contribute to the growth of smart cities.”

“Most of the world doesn’t have an address or is poorly addressed,” said William Bao Bean General Partner of SOSV and Managing Director MOX, “UNL’s ability to bring accurate location to developing and emerging markets will enable services from delivery to micro-loans for the next 4 billion internet users.”

In its core, UNL is an infrastructural technology that divides the world into a 3D grid of micro-cells. To every cell, UNL assigns a unique, global location ID, similar to domain names, and adds a smart layer to make locations – anywhere – programmable and transactional.

“UNL is building the Internet of Places, where we bring a new dimension to real-life places through content, context and automation. Where locations become dynamic environments in which we experience, interact and consume. Everything, hyper-local and hyper-contextual.” – added van der Heijden.

The Internet of Places is a trusted network where real-life locations are coupled with their smart UNL digital doppelgangers to power next-generation hyper-local experiences, applications and micro-services on top of the UNL infrastructure. From sourcing, storing and administration of real-time contextual data, to automation and governance of location-based transactions, to machine-to-machine transactions.

The funding will help the company develop the Internet of Places core infrastructure as well as further expand operations into key markets globally, starting with Asia.