PlanetWatch raised a total of three million euros via a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) complemented by bank loans. The CERN spin-off will use the capital to solidify the business’ foundations and prepare for a larger Series A round later this year.
With a strong roadmap for 2023 that includes smart contracts for air quality data sales and the transition to a Web3 business model, PlanetWatch will use the funds towards three main purposes: strengthening the technical infrastructure, growing the air quality monitoring network, and boosting business development initiatives.
“We are honored that key entities from the Algorand ecosystem, as well as major French banks, continue to support PlanetWatch development,” said Claudio Parrinello, co-founder and CEO of PlanetWatch. “At a challenging time for blockchain companies, PlanetWatch is being endorsed as a real-world blockchain project with a compelling use case and capable of closing business deals both with companies and with governmental entities.”
The round, bridging between a Seed one and a future Series A, was led by Borderless Capital. Additional investors include Algorand Inc. and the Algorand Foundation. Two French banks are providing additional liquidity via loans.
“In the framework of our $10M PLANETS Fund which is one of the largest air quality sensor runners in the PlanetWatch network, we are excited to lead this new financing round and back the company vision of building the largest decentralized global air quality monitoring network and use blockchain as the core tech to make it happen. We strongly believe that PlanetWatch can really disrupt and transform the air and green data economy and markets at a global scale” said David Garcia, CEO and Managing Partner at Borderless Capital.
“It is central to our mission to support solutions that use the Algorand blockchain to address environmental challenges,” said Matt Keller, Head of Impact at the Algorand Foundation. “With its affordable air quality sensors, PlanetWatch empowers people to become agents of change in their own communities which in turn – among other things – gives policymakers real-time data to help combat air pollution on a localized level. In 2022 they became the largest project on Algorand in terms of daily number of transactions, proving that the real-world utility and potential for broad impact is there. We’re excited to support the team in delivering on the roadmap ahead.”
About PlanetWatch s.a.s.Planetwatch s.a.s. is a high-tech startup based in France that’s leveraging the Algorand blockchain, advanced algorithms, and high-performance yet affordable air quality sensors, to deploy dense, low-cost air quality monitoring networks. The PlanetWatch network, which has over 20,000 sensors currently active worldwide, powers advanced data products both for governmental and private sector entities, while building the first global immutable air quality data ledger. An official CERN spin-off company, PlanetWatch is also a member of the Crypto Sustainability Coalition fostered by the World Economic Forum.
About Borderless CapitalBorderless Capital is a modern financial institution investing capital and co-building financial products that accelerate access, bootstrap adoption, and create value globally through the Algorand Borderless Economy. We do not stop with just investment. We also provide guidance and mentorship to grow our portfolio companies into successful and category leading businesses. As a thought leader in blockchain with deep expertise in the Algorand ecosystem, we advise our portfolio companies on go-to-market strategies to effectively build their network effect. In short, we leverage the synergy of our portfolio, partners network, and domain expertise to create value for everyone.
About the Algorand FoundationThe Algorand Foundation is dedicated to helping fulfill the global promise of the Algorand blockchain by taking responsibility for its sound monetary supply economics, decentralized governance, and healthy and prosperous open-source ecosystem. Designed by MIT professor and Turing Award winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand is uniquely capable of delivering on the promise of a borderless global economy. It achieves transaction throughputs at the speed of traditional finance, but with immediate finality, near zero transaction costs, and on a 24/7 basis. Its carbon-neutral platform and unique pure proof-of-stake consensus mechanism solves for the “blockchain trilemma” by achieving both security and scalability on a decentralized protocol, and without a second of downtime since it went live in 2019. For more information, please visit https://algorand.foundation
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