Borderless Capital closed a $10m PLANETS.Fund to build green data economy on Algorand

By Edlyn Cardoza

Borderless Capital, the Miami-based venture capital firm dedicated to the Algorand ecosystem, recently announced the closing of PLANETS.Fund, a $10 million 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 in deploying 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 $1 million 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; Woodrow Levin, Sam Frankfort, Steve Kokinos, Kenzi Wang, Sonny Sigh 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”