Borderless Capital, a US-based venture capital firm, has raised $10m for its Planets.Fund backed by blockchain infrastructure developer Algorand.
The fund will invest in the ecosystem surrounding PlanetWatch, a decentralized indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring network built on the Algorand blockchain.
Those participating in the PlanetWatch network are compensated with Planets tokens for streaming air quality data. The fund will also hold a long-term position in Planets tokens and equity.
Borderless Capital has committed $1m to the fund alongside Algorand, investment firms SkyBridge, Jump Capital, Kenetic Capital, Meld Ventures, Youbi Capital and Cognitive Blockchain and 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), Sonny Signh (co-Founder of BitPay) and individual investors from Genesis Capital.
David Garcia, CEO and managing partner of Borderless Capital, said: “Planets.Fund was established to accelerate the development of responsible air quality monitoring on Algorand, the market’s only carbon-negative blockchain.”
France-based 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. PlanetWatch went live on Algorand MainNet, founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, in August 2020.
Claudio Parrinello, CEO of Planetwatch, said: “With PlanetWatch, people are making their own city smart.”
