In 2006, Israeli programmer Ehud Shabtai founded a community project known as FreeMap Israel, which aimed to create (with the crowd-sourcing assistance of community users) a free digital mapping database of Israel compiled in the Hebrew language with ensured free content, updates, and distribution. The application generates revenue through hyperlocal advertising to an estimated 130 million users.

In June 2013, Waze Mobile was acquired by Google for US$1.3 billion. Funding for the initial project was provided by two Israeli venture capital firms, Magma and Vertex Ventures Israel, as well as by an early-stage American venture capital firm, Bluerun Ventures.

The software was originally developed in Israel by Waze Mobile, a company founded by Israeli entrepreneurs Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar, and Uri Levine. Waze describes its application as a community-driven initiative that is free to download and use. In addition to turn-by-turn navigation, it incorporates user-submitted travel times and route details while downloading location-dependent information over a cellular network. Waze ( / w eɪ z/ Hebrew: ווייז), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). For the Tierra Whack song, see Whack World.

For the Skepta, Chip and Young Adz song, see Waze (song). This article is about the GPS navigation software.

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