Uri Levine, a co-founder of Waze. File photo by Campus Party Brasil, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
2013Companies
Waze grows from an idea in 2009 to 44 million users, and Google buys it in 2013.
Volunteer map editors and drivers build the map, and the development team stays in Israel after the sale.
The story in numbers.
Here is how it happened.
2009
Waze starts in 2009 on the idea that the people driving the roads know them better than any map.
It describes itself as a free, community-driven GPS navigation application.
SourceWaze
October 2011
Waze raises $30 million and passes 7 million users.
It had raised $25 million the December before.
SourceVentureBeat
July 2012
Waze passes 20 million members, having doubled in size in six months.
It has added 13 million new users in eight months.
SourceVentureBeat
Noam Bardin, Waze's CEO, speaking at Web Summit in 2014. File photo by Web Summit, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
June 2013
Google confirms it is buying Waze.
The amount is not disclosed, but sources believe it is $1.1 billion. The product development team will remain in Israel, Google says.
SourceGlobes
Today
More than 500,000 volunteers now edit the Waze map.
Waze says over 200 million drivers use it. Its volunteers process over 2 billion edits a year.
SourceWaze
1 of 5
Waze grows from 7 million users in October 2011 to 44 million in April 2013.
million users
Source:TechCrunchVentureBeat, October 2011VentureBeat, July 2012
More pictures from this story.
Uri Levine, a co-founder of Waze, at a traffic control centre in Medellín, 2014. File photo by Secretaría de Movilidad de Medellín, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Uri Levine, a co-founder of Waze, at a traffic control centre in Medellín, 2014
Here is why it matters.
Waze built its map from the people who drive the roads, and the app is free. Its volunteers now process over 2 billion edits a year.
Three more milestones to read next.
A Mobileye camera mounted on a windscreen. File photo by Ranbar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
2017
Intel agrees to buy Israel's Mobileye for about $15.3 billion.
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1998
America Online buys Mirabilis, the Israeli maker of ICQ.
Read the story
Assaf Rappaport, co-founder and CEO of Wiz. File photo by TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
2026
Google completes its $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity company Wiz.
Read the story
Where each fact was read.
Sources read on 1 November 2026.