With €1M funding, this Dutch startup wants to unclutter the internet

As spoiled inhabitants of the digital age we have started to take accessibility to all kinds of information for granted. But while all the data you could want is just one mouse-click away, it has become increasingly hard to find the relevant information you are looking for. Dutch startup DOT.world aims to filter the online waste and enable people to find the information they want.

“Reddit meets Pinterest meets Wikipedia”

DOT.world enables communities and organisations to create their own platforms in order to help people find those needles in the digital haystack. This way it will start conversations between experts and their audiences. At first glance one may think “Yet another community platform, isn’t that very 2007?” but DOT.world assures they are doing it differently. The startup claims to offer “the best of all worlds” as they strive to combine curation in the style of Reddit with a strong visual display like Pinterest and crowdsourcing the way Wikipedia does it.

No More White Noise

Founder Wim Korevaar explains he got the idea for DOT.world out of his own frustration with the lack of well curated information available online. “Despite the huge amount of valuable information you can find online, there is also a lot of white noise. We want to enable experts in their respective fields to unite and build structured community-platforms. That is how information gets organised and sorted, and how the best information on certain topics becomes easy to find”. All platforms are based on the “wisdom of the crowd”-principle: “If you are looking for a platform with the best information on a certain topic and where you can organise and discuss this with experts and the ‘crowd’, the DOT.world-platforms are the best way to help you separate the wheat from the chaff”.

Two types of platforms

Anyone can share content on DOT.world platforms. Users can vote for articles, images and video’s which will make them appear higher up on the timeline. When registering their own platforms, users can choose between two types of structured community-platforms. While individuals can create a free accessible platform watermarked with a DOT.world-logo, organisations and companies can start their own paid customized platforms. DOT.world has already registered thirty platforms prior to the launch. These range from topics such as start-ups and management consulting to expert topics like food security and the Zika virus.

€ 1M in funding

DOT.world started out on the University of Twente in the eastern part of the Netherlands. So far the company has raised over €1 million in funding, mainly from a group of undisclosed private investors. The startup’s primary ambition is to “facilitate as many platforms as possible and help people with sharing, curating and discussing the most relevant information on any subject”.