dotMeow says its .meow application has been submitted and paid

dotMeow Foundation now publicly states that its application for .meow has been submitted to ICANN and paid. The status appeared on the project’s official Kickstarter page with an update date of 14 August 2026 and is repeated on the organization’s public social profile.

That moves the project beyond a statement of intent. RapidWombat now records a specific public claim on .meow by a named applicant, while leaving its official ICANN status unpublished until Reveal Day.

The applicant and its proposed registry

dotMeow Foundation is a Belgian nonprofit that plans to operate .meow with open registration. Its stated model is to use revenue remaining after registry costs to support LGBTQIA+ community projects.

The Kickstarter campaign raised €121,896 from 1,838 backers, exceeding its €80,000 goal. dotMeow says it qualified for ICANN’s Applicant Support Program. The organization specifically reports a 75% application-fee reduction and reduced operating fees during its first three years; ICANN describes the program generally as providing a 75–85% evaluation-fee reduction and reduced base Registry Operator fees for successful supported applicants.

CORE will provide the registry backend

In a 26 June project update, dotMeow said it had signed a contract with CORE Association as its Registry Service Provider and had also lined up a data escrow provider. CORE is a Swiss nonprofit with experience operating community, geographic, brand, and internationalized TLDs.

ICANN’s evaluated-RSP directory now lists CORE as having successfully cleared Main, DNS, and DNSSEC evaluation for the 2026 round.

What remains unconfirmed

The .meow tracker page records the claim, but the public sources do not identify .meow as either a primary or replacement string. They also disclose no ICANN application identifier or replacement string.

No other public applicant for .meow was found in the sources reviewed. That is not proof that the string is uncontested: only ICANN’s official publication can establish the full applicant list and any contention set.