Bee Maps, the decentralized mapping challenge powered by Hivemapper, has raised $32 million in contemporary funding to increase its world 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 12 months.
Bee Maps is an software on the Hivemapper community, which is among the largest decentralized bodily infrastructure networks (DePIN) centered on mapping knowledge on Solana.
Hivemapper allows drivers to contribute knowledge by way of AI-enabled sprint cams, which detect real-time adjustments on roads (like new indicators on the roads, detours, or development zones), making certain digital maps can replace shortly to remain correct. Bee Maps leverages this infrastructure by rewarding contributors with its native token, $HONEY, for gathering street-level imagery.
The elevate highlights robust investor urge for food for Bee Maps’ imaginative and prescient of real-time, AI-powered maps. In current months, Bee Maps has teamed up with main gamers together with Lyft and Volkswagen’s robotaxi program to carry its mapping-data to their platforms.
The contemporary capital shall be used to distribute extra gadgets, improve AI fashions that course of and replace map options and increase contributor incentives tied to $HONEY.
“With this funding, we’re accelerating world system deployments, increasing protection, and strengthening our AI pipeline. Demand just isn’t the issue — provide is,” stated Ariel Seidman, the co-founder of Hivemapper, in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.
Bee Maps can be rolling out a Bee Membership plan, slashing upfront prices from almost $600 to simply $19 a month. The subscription bundles {hardware}, software program, and contributor advantages into one bundle, reducing the barrier for brand new members to hitch the community.
Learn extra: Volkswagen ADMT Faucets Solana-Based mostly Hivemapper Bee Maps for Driverless Information
