The fund is backed by leading investment firms as well as prominent individual investors
MIAMI, Nov. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Borderless Capital, the Miami-based venture capital firm dedicated to the Algorand ecosystem, announced today the closing of PLANETS.Fund, a $10M fund focused on building a green data economy. The fund will invest in the ecosystem surrounding PlanetWatch, the world's first decentralized indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring network built on the Algorand blockchain. "PlanetWatchers" or Air quality sensor hosts participating in the PlanetWatch network are compensated with PLANETS tokens for streaming air quality data. The PLANETS.Fund is planning to invest the raised capital to deploy a global network of thousands of PlanetWatch air quality sensors across the globe. The Fund will also hold a long term position in PLANETS tokens and equity.
Borderless Capital is anchoring the PLANETS.Fund with a $1M investment and world-class investment firms such as SkyBridge, JUMP Capital, Kenetic Capital, Algorand Inc, Meld Ventures and Youbi Capital are joining the Fund along with individual investors; Robert Matza, Steven Tannenbaum, Joseph Naggar and Deeb Salem (Partners at GoldenTree); Woodrow Levin (CEO of Extend.com), Sam Frankfort (partner at Benvolio Group), Steve Kokinos (CEO of Algorand), Kenzi Wang (Cere Founder and Hyperedge Capital Managing Partner), Sonny Signh (Co-Founder of BitPay) and individual investors from Genesis Capital.
'We acknowledge that air pollution is one of the world's most serious public health threats, with 9 out of 10 people worldwide living in places where pollutants exceed the guideline limits of the World Health Organization," said David Garcia, CEO & Managing Partner of Borderless Capital. "This is why the PLANETS.Fund was established to accelerate the development of responsible air quality monitoring on Algorand, the market's only carbon-negative blockchain, which will help us mitigate the problem with reliable data and at the same time create value for our investors, for the PlanetWatch network and primarily for the planet Earth."
PlanetWatch was founded in 2020 as a spinoff of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The data collected by PlanetWatch air sensors is transcribed onto Algorand, creating an immutable air quality repository. The PlanetWatchers network currently has over 20,000 air sensors spread across the globe, with the number rapidly increasing. PlanetWatch went live on Algorand MainNet in August 2020.
Claudio Parrinello, CEO of Planetwatch, said "We are humbled and grateful to PLANETS.Fund investors for subscribing to our disruptive new vision for global environmental monitoring, where the engagement of ordinary people is instrumental for network deployment and maintenance. With PlanetWatch, people are making their own city smart. We are currently building the largest air quality monitoring network in the world, so Fund resources will be instrumental for speeding up global deployment and engagement.
A special thank goes to Borderless Capital for supporting Planetwatch since its launch and leading the PLANETS.Fund initiative"
About Borderless Capital
Borderless 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.
For more info: www.borderlesscapital.io
About PlanetWatch s.a.s.
Planetwatch s.a.s., is a high-tech startup based in France, less than a mile away from CERN. By leveraging synergically the Algorand blockchain, advanced data acquisition software developed at CERN and high-performance yet affordable air quality sensors, including advanced devices developed by a major research institute, Planetwatch decentralizes, incentivizes and gamifies environmental monitoring. Planetwatch is currently deploying dense, low-cost air quality monitoring networks delivering real-time data and building the first global immutable ledger for historical air quality data. For more information, visit https://www.planetwatch.io.
About Algorand
Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for DeFi, financial institutions, and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. For more information, visit www.algorand.com.
Media Contact: Ditto PR, algorand@dittopr.co
