French geolocation startup WHEERE raises €8.5 million to take its indoor positioning technology into orbit

GPS has become one of the most critical infrastructures in the global economy. Every day, billions of smartphones, vehicles, aircraft, ships and logistics networks rely on signals transmitted by satellite constellations to determine their position. Yet this infrastructure has had one known weakness from the outset: it works remarkably well outdoors and considerably less effectively indoors.

Factories, warehouses, tunnels, hospitals, industrial sites, underground infrastructure and complex buildings are all environments in which positioning accuracy deteriorates sharply. Wheere was built precisely around this limitation. Founded in Montpellier in 2020 by Pierre-Arnaud Coquelin and Antoine Carrabin, the startup has announced an €8.5 million funding round to finance the next stages of its development.

Behind the transaction lies a much broader ambition. After developing technology capable of locating people and equipment through several dozen metres of concrete, the company is now preparing to enter the space sector. Its objective is to extend its system worldwide through a satellite constellation and establish itself in the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) market, currently dominated by major state-controlled infrastructure.

GPS works everywhere… except where the economy actually creates value

The rise of Industry 4.0 has brought renewed attention to a limitation long considered secondary. While GPS transformed outdoor navigation, it remains poorly suited to enclosed environments.

Industrial companies have developed numerous alternatives to address this problem. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, ultra-wideband (UWB), computer vision and sensor networks can all locate equipment or people in specific environments. Each technology, however, comes with its own constraints: limited coverage, high installation costs, variable accuracy or dependence on complex infrastructure.

This fragmentation is hindering the emergence of a universal standard. For industrial companies, the challenge now extends far beyond simple geolocation. They need to track assets in real time, protect lone workers, optimise logistics flows and feed the digital twins that are gradually becoming the nervous system of modern factories.

Technology designed to penetrate walls

Wheere’s approach relies on VHF frequencies, which propagate more effectively through complex environments than the technologies ordinarily used for positioning. The company claims its signals can pass through up to 50 metres of concrete while maintaining metre-level accuracy. It also highlights the simplicity of its infrastructure: four antennas would reportedly be sufficient to cover one square kilometre.

This proposition directly addresses the constraints of industrial sites where deploying hundreds of beacons or sensors would require substantial investment.

Initial deployments with companies including TotalEnergies, EDF and L’Oréal currently provide the startup’s strongest evidence of credibility.

Does Wheere want to replace GPS or simply complement it?

Although the company regularly refers to sovereignty, the creation of a new global standard and the construction of alternative infrastructure, Wheere’s current applications appear more complementary to existing GNSS systems than directly competitive with them.

In the most realistic scenario, the startup would primarily address GPS’s main weakness.

GPS would provide outdoor positioning, while Wheere would take over inside buildings. Users would therefore benefit from continuous positioning across different environments.

Why send the technology into space?

Wheere’s space ambitions are intended to gradually eliminate its dependence on terrestrial infrastructure.

Today, the technology relies on antennas installed at the sites requiring coverage. In future, the company wants to transmit its signals directly from space through a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites.

The project belongs to the emerging Positioning, Navigation and Timing infrastructure segment. These systems form one of the invisible but essential layers of the digital economy. They are used not only to locate equipment, but also to synchronise energy grids, telecommunications infrastructure and financial systems.

Wheere’s objective is to make its technology directly accessible to connected devices, robots, autonomous vehicles and, eventually, smartphones, without requiring dedicated infrastructure on the ground.

Moving from indoor positioning to orbit changes the scale of the challenge

This is also where the difficulties begin. Designing innovative radio technology is already a complex undertaking. Building space infrastructure is another challenge entirely.

Wheere currently develops positioning systems, software and radiofrequency equipment. In future, the company will also need to master orbital operations, space payloads, constellation management and the associated regulatory constraints.

The recent history of Europe’s New Space industry shows that this transition is rarely straightforward. Several startups have discovered that the skills required to execute a space project differ significantly from those involved in the early stages of technology development.

The orbital demonstration scheduled for the first half of 2027 is therefore likely to be the most important milestone on the company’s roadmap.

The ASIC bet, another strategic undertaking

Another element deserves attention: the launch of an ASIC programme. The objective is to develop a proprietary chip capable of integrating Wheere’s technology directly into third-party equipment. Smartphones, industrial robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and connected devices could therefore support the system natively.

The history of technology infrastructure shows that value often ultimately resides in hardware components. In artificial intelligence, NVIDIA established its position through its chips. In geolocation, Qualcomm became a central player by integrating GNSS technologies into its components.

For Wheere, tomorrow’s competitive advantage could lie as much in silicon as in satellites.

A transition round before a much larger financing

The announced financing comprises €4.2 million in equity and €4.3 million in non-dilutive funding. The transaction resembles a bridge round more than a conventional growth round. It is intended to help the company complete its final milestones before raising a €40 million Series A.

Existing investors Blast Club, Éric Larchevêque and Sofilaro, together with several business angels, participated in this interim round. Funds considering a Series A of that size, however, will require more than technological promises. The company has itself identified the two indicators that will determine the next stage: a successful orbital validation in 2027 and the signing of multiyear contracts.