An Overview of the Crypto Venture Capital Firm Borderless Capital: Founded on Algorand, with a Focus on DePIN

By: Zen, PANews

 

Recently, Borderless Capital launched a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) fund, with a funding amount of $100 million. Investors include the blockchain Peaq, which focuses on DePIN, as well as the Solana Foundation, Jump Crypto, and IoTeX. The new fund is led by former Spanish telecommunications executive Álvaro Gracia and Helium co-founder Sean Carey, with support from the Layer 1 blockchain Peaq, the Solana Foundation, Jump Crypto, and IoTeX. Partner Álvaro Gracia stated, "DePIN will become the global standard for deploying physical infrastructure, coordinating human resources, and generating billions of dollars in passive income, while providing users with convenient access and lower costs."

 

Betting on DePIN

 

Before launching this $100 million DePIN fund, Borderless Capital, which focuses on the Algorand ecosystem, had already begun paying attention to and laying out plans in the "DePIN" field. In July 2021, Borderless launched the $10 million HNT. Fund, supported by former Twitter COO Adam Bain and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. The HNT. Fund is Borderless's first non-Algorand fund, aimed at mining and staking HNT (the native token of the Helium network). In addition to holding HNT tokens and shares in Helium developer Nova Labs for the long term, Borderless has also invested heavily in the broader DePIN ecosystem. Their focus includes wireless IoT and cellular/5G networks, mobility and spatial data collection, file storage, edge computing, as well as weather and pollution monitoring. Borderless believes that the development of the Helium network provides some important lessons and insights for the broader DePIN space. Although there has been rapid growth in the deployment of Helium devices, the actual utilization of the network is still at a very early stage. Therefore, the DePIN protocol needs to go beyond incentivizing users to deploy devices and instead focus more on deploying devices that maximize adoption rates, usage rates, and actual application utility. They also pointed out that DePIN networks compete based on four key factors: rapid network growth through token-based incentives, the cost of crowd-sourced hardware (capital expenditure), hardware embedded in financial systems, and open-source innovation and competition. Furthermore, they stated that DePIN networks are key to unlocking global adoption of web3 technologies and economies, as they connect digital currencies and contracts with the "retail" familiarity of tangible real-world utilities and physical assets. While innovative token economies have driven the early development of these networks, their long-term value derives from the actual deployment of hardware infrastructure and substantial real-world application utility. Over time, this will create compound value, offering defensive opportunities for reducing risks in cryptocurrency investment portfolios.

Investment Portfolio

 

Since 2018, Borderless has made over 250 investments in the fields of infrastructure, business applications, and emerging crypto protocols. According to PANews statistics, Borderless has disclosed at least 18 investments this year alone, mainly in DePIN and infrastructure projects. Particularly in the DePIN space, they are often seen as a lead investor. Below is a summary of Borderless's participation in projects this year:

 

DePIN:

 

IoTeX: An IoT blockchain platform, announced $50 million funding in April, with participation from Amber Group and others.

Digital Infrastructure: A decentralized physical infrastructure network, announced $11.5 million in Series A funding in January, led by CoinFund.

WeatherXM: A crypto-driven weather station network and weather data provider, announced $7.7 million in Series A funding in May, led by Lightspeed Faction.

Ambient: A DePIN project within the Solana ecosystem, acquired the Algorand-based environmental data project PlanetWatch in March and announced $2 million in seed funding in May, led by Borderless Capital.

Natix: A DePIN project focused on map data, announced $4.6 million in funding in April, led by Borderless Capital.

Peaq: A Layer 1 blockchain platform, announced raising $15 million in March to expand its DePIN ecosystem, led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital.

Silencio Network: A provider of decentralized data coverage solutions for combating noise pollution, announced $1 million in pre-seed funding in February, led by Borderless Capital.

-Wingbits: A DePIN flight tracking network built on Solana, announced $3.5 million in seed funding in September, led by Borderless Capital and Tribe Ca

 

Infrastructure and Tools:

Hypernative: A Web3 security company, announced $16 million in Series A funding in September, led by Quantstamp.

OpenLedger: Focused on building permissionless and data-driven infrastructure for AI development, announced $8 million in seed funding in July, led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital.

Tanssi Network: An application chain infrastructure protocol, announced $6 million in strategic funding in March, co-led by Scytale Digital, KR1, and SNZ.

Bagel Network: A decentralized data platform supporting machine learning (ML) models, announced $3.1 million in pre-seed funding in January, led by CoinFund.

Mayan: A cross-chain auction protocol, announced $3 million in seed funding in April, led by Borderless Capital and 6th Man Ventures.

Zircuit: An EVM-compatible zkRollup network, announced mainnet funding in July, with participation from Binance Labs, Amber Group, and others.

Synonym Finance: A universal cross-chain credit layer, announced $1.5 million in seed funding in January, led by Borderless Capital.

Biconomy: A multi-chain infrastructure developer, announced strategic funding in March, with participation from Jump Capital and others.

 

DeFi:

 

Amnis Finance: A liquidity staking protocol, announced $2 million in funding in September, led by Borderless Capital and OKX Ventures.

Zoth: An RWA platform, announced $2.5 million in funding in April, led by Blockchain Founders Fund.

 

This article is adapted from Foresight News:

https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/69157

Best regards,

AIC Team

2024/10/14