PANews reported on August 7 that according to The Block, Solana Ecosystem DePIN project Andrena raised $18 million in a round of financing led by Dragonfly. Other investors in this round of financing include CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and ParaFi.
Andrena co-founder Neil Chatterjee said this was an extension of the Series A financing, structured as a simple future equity agreement (SAFE) with token warrants, and this round of financing was "significantly oversubscribed". Andrena's initial goal was $5 million, but it eventually raised more funds in batches earlier this year "to allow us to smoothly achieve the token generation event or TGE." Chatterjee said that the Series A financing brings Andrena's total financing to $38 million. He declined to comment on the valuation or whether any investors have taken board seats. Last year, Andrena raised $15 million in Series A financing, also led by Dragonfly.
According to reports, Andrena is developing DAWN (Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network), a DePIN protocol based on Solana that aims to provide decentralized Internet services. The company currently plans to gradually migrate its existing customers and revenue to the chain starting from the undetermined token issuance date. Chatterjee said DAWN will allow users to purchase its native tokens through a mobile app, which can then be used to purchase Internet bandwidth from the community. He added that the mobile app will be connected to a home hardware device with an antenna that will provide and share Internet access. DAWN is currently running on the testnet and will be released on Solana. Chatterjee declined to comment on the schedule for the mainnet and token release.
