What3words: Losses slashed as jobs cut and sales double
What3words shed jobs and significantly cut its pre-tax loss as sales more than doubled in 2024, it has been revealed.
The London-headquartered tech business, which is backed by ITV, Mercedes-Benz and former F1 champion Nico Rosberg, has reported a pre-tax loss of £10.6m for its latest financial year, down from the £16.4m it posted for 2023.
New accounts filed with Companies House also show the firm’s turnover more than doubled from £1m to £2.1m over the same period.
However, the results reveal that its headcount reduced from 128 to 92 in 2024.
The latest headcount figure compares to the 152 people What3words employed in 2023.
What3words’ latest pre-tax loss figure compares to the £31.5m it posted in 2022 and £43.2m in 2021.
The company divides the world into three-by-three metre squares and assigns a unique three-word labels to each.
Its backers also include the likes of Channel 4 and Sony.
What3words ‘adapts strategy’
What3words said that despite production volumes in the automotive sector generally decreasing in 2024, revenue from enterprise customers, including automotive, increased by 105 per cent compared to the prior year.
The company added that its revenue from API subscriptions also grew by 75 per cent.
What3words said: “The group continued to target specific local markets around the world to drive consumer awareness and usage of the product on a free-to-use basis and provide free-to-use licences to a range of emergency service providers, NGOs and charities across the globe.
“Focus remained on deploying resources in key markets where ongoing consumer testing demonstrated high returns, whilst streamlining underlying cost base.”
At the end of its financial year, What3words acquired Swiftcomplete, an address validation software company.
What3words said the change in its pre-tax loss was “driven primarily by the continued reduction in consumer acquisition activities and the fair value adjustment relating to convertible loan notes”.
It added: “In response to the global economic outlook not showing signs in the near term of improving, the group has adapted its strategy to enable continued progress in key markets while carefully controlling costs.”