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
