2023-10-26 08:25:00
Specializing in geolocation by radio waves, the Montpellier startup Wheere, created at the end of 2020, has just completed fundraising of 11 million euros from Blast.club, Sofilaro, Bpifrance and three business angels (Arnaud Freyn CEO of Extia, Adrien Montfort, CTO of Sorare and Arthur, producer and TV host).
“After three years of R&D, Wheere has become the only scalable indoor and outdoor geolocation solution offering metric precision, indicates Antoine Carrabin, co-founder of Wheere, with Pierre-Arnaud Coquelin. This fundraising will allow us to continue financing our R&D and begin the industrialization of our solution. »
One patent filed, two algorithms
Pierre-Arnaud Coquelin, founder of MacLloyd, a company specializing in the tracking of professional athletes (to analyze their performances), and Antoine Carrabin, then technical director at MacLloyd, started from an observation: for indoor sports (basketball, hockey ice,…), the GPS does not work and the only solution is to install Bluetooth or Ultra wideband (UWB) beacons in the stadium. But the process is complex to implement (calibration adjustments, maintenance, etc.) and expensive. The duo then had the idea of combining mathematics and radio frequency.
“All current geolocation or telecommunications systems work by using modulation, but to have optimal precision, you need a very wide signal bandwidth, vulgarise Antoine Carrabin. We took the opposite approach by using the narrowest possible bandwidth and we created an algorithm capable of measuring time of flight from unmodulated signals. We have also developed a second algorithm which makes it possible to discriminate the direct path of the multiple bounces of the electromagnetic wave. »
The system patented by Wheere is made up of radio broadcast antennas, fixed or mobile, and a tracker (average weight of 200 grams, autonomy of 6 to 15 days depending on use) which gives a three-dimensional position. The solution makes it possible to provide precise geolocation, indoor, outdoor and even underground, with precision to the nearest meter and a range of around ten kilometers (one kilometer underground).
Partnership with the Paris firefighters
After an initial demonstration in the presence of experts from the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) which proved conclusive, Wheere worked for two years to develop a full-scale demonstrator, installing on the roofs of Montpellier four antennas covering the city center.
Approached by private manufacturers but also by the defense sector (GIGN, security service for the Olympic Games, etc.), the startup wants to address several verticals, ranging from health to logistics through construction.
“Wheere is developing a unique, patented technology in the world, which is at the stage of the first POCs, declares one of the investors, Antony Bourbon, CEO and founder of Blast.Club. The absence of a reliable and scalable solution for indoor/outdoor geolocation is a national security issue for nuclear power or the risk of attacks, corporate for the security of personnel working underground or logistics, but also mainstream for the analysis of high-level indoor sports. Thanks to the scalability of its tool, Wheere can therefore address more than ten international markets, worth several billion euros, in the next three years. »
Since last summer, Wheere has generated nearly 50 demonstrations in different industries and has just signed its first partnership with the Paris fire brigade to equip around twenty fire stations.
Spatialization of technology
Beginning the industrial phase, the company invests nearly 200,000 euros in a production unit in Montpellier. It is targeting a volume of 3,000 trackers (as well as transmitting antennas) in 2024, then 20,000 in 2025.
But Wheere is already working on the next step, at the end of 2025: miniaturization, i.e. an Asic chip (specialized integrated circuit) that can be integrated into all phones or trackers in the world, and reducing the cost of producing modules. It will thus be able to capture the B2C market.
Another challenge: the spatialization of technology.
“Rather than installing antennas to cover France and internationally, we are studying the possibility of sending satellites with our transmitters on board, confides Anoine Carrabin. For six months, we have been incubated at CNES, which is pushing us in this direction. For the moment, we are at the theoretical feasibility stage because the biggest constraint for deploying our technology in space is the effect of the ionosphere: this layer of the atmosphere, highly ionized, has the property of coming disrupt electromagnetic waves. We therefore want to validate that the signals wire will remain operational and that the receiver on Earth will be able to properly measure the positions of the signals. We will then consider the deployment of a constellation in ten years. »
To accelerate on all fronts, Wheere is strengthening its team (three employees today) with around ten employees by the end of the year, then double that number at the end of 2024.
With the deployment of its terrestrial version, the startup is targeting 5 million euros in turnover by 2026, 50 million euros in 2028 with Asic deployed, to reach 300 million euros in 2030 with its satellite coverage.
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