Bee Maps, the decentralized mapping challenge powered by Hivemapper, has raised $32 million in contemporary funding to develop its international contributor community and scale its infrastructure, it introduced Monday.
The spherical was led by Pantera Capital, LDA Capital, Borderless Capital and Ajna Capital, marking one of many largest financings within the decentralized bodily infrastructure (DePin) sector this yr.
Bee Maps is an software on the Hivemapper community, which is without doubt one of the largest decentralized bodily infrastructure networks (DePIN) targeted on mapping information on Solana.
Hivemapper allows drivers to contribute information by AI-enabled sprint cams, which detect real-time adjustments on roads (like new indicators on the roads, detours, or development zones), guaranteeing digital maps can replace rapidly to remain correct. Bee Maps leverages this infrastructure by rewarding contributors with its native token, $HONEY, for amassing street-level imagery.
The increase highlights sturdy investor urge for food for Bee Maps’ imaginative and prescient of real-time, AI-powered maps. In latest months, Bee Maps has teamed up with main gamers together with Lyft and Volkswagen’s robotaxi program to convey its mapping-data to their platforms.
The contemporary capital might be used to distribute extra gadgets, improve AI fashions that course of and replace map options and enhance contributor incentives tied to $HONEY.
“With this funding, we’re accelerating international gadget deployments, increasing protection, and strengthening our AI pipeline. Demand will not be the issue — provide is,” mentioned Ariel Seidman, the co-founder of Hivemapper, in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.
Bee Maps can also be rolling out a Bee Membership plan, slashing upfront prices from practically $600 to only $19 a month. The subscription bundles {hardware}, software program, and contributor advantages into one package deal, decreasing the barrier for brand spanking new contributors to hitch the community.
Learn extra: Volkswagen ADMT Faucets Solana-Based mostly Hivemapper Bee Maps for Driverless Information
