Waze revealed Tuesday that its service has ballooned to more than 7.3 million registered users worldwide. The company also announced that it has raised $30 million in financing in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
"We're touching people around the world with something they want and need," says Noam Bardin, CEO of Waze.
Waze first launched its social traffic service in Israel in January 2009. Today, the startup has 1.3 million drivers in the country. It's a figure that represents a sizable chunk of Israel's smartphone-owning population and has led to a critical mass of drivers using the application at the same time, Bardin says.
Los Angeles, a city with a well-deserved reputation for roadway congestion, accounts for the largest concentration of Waze users in a single metropolitan area. The closure of the 405 freeway during a three-day period in July -- that became known as "Carmageddon" -- spurred Waze activity in the city. The startup partnered with the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles to promote its app and provide locals with ongoing on-air traffic reports, as crowdsourced by city drivers using Waze.
Carmageddon's disastrous effects on city traffic proved uplifting for Waze -- 200,000 L.A. residents signed up for the service during the freeway shutdown.
Now with 7 million drivers and a combined total of $67 million in funding, raised in three rounds, Waze is fast becoming a global phenomenon, Bardin says.
"It takes time for the service to mature," he says of the startup's three-year build-up. "Once you hit a certain amount of data, then you can provide the value," he adds, indicating that Waze usage has finally surpassed a tipping point in many cities around the world.
The application has evolved to become an essential everyday utility for millions of drivers, Bardin says. But can Waze replace the traffic report as we know it? Bardin says yes -- eventually. "It will take a while to replace … but what we're providing is much more granular."