Mawari Network, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) built on Solana and focused on spatial computing, has raised $10.8 million in a strategic funding round.
Anfield Ltd, Borderless Capital and 1kx co-led the round, with participation from Accord Ventures, Animoca Brands Japan, Blockchange Ventures, Draper Dragon and Samsung Next, Mawari Network said on Thursday. Angel investors including Helium co-founder and Borderless Capital partner Sean Carey, The Tie co-founder and CEO Joshua Frank, Techstars Web3 leader Pete Townsend and former Galaxy Digital chief information security officer Ivan Brightly also joined the round.
As part of the deal, Carey joined Mawari Network’s board of directors, Mawari co-founder and CEO Luis Oscar Ramirez told The Block.
Marwari began raising funding for its strategic round in March and closed last week, Ramirez said. He added that this round consisted of a simple contract for future assets (SAFE) along with token warrants. Ramirez declined to comment on Marwari’s valuation.
The strategic financing round increases Mawari’s total capital to $17.3 million, following a $6.5 million raise in February 2023.
What is Marwari Network?
Mawari is a Solana-based DePIN project focused on scaling spatial computing. Spatial computing blends the physical world with digital information, allowing users to interact with their surroundings through technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR).
Mawari means “surroundings” or “look around” in Japanese, Ramirez said. He explained that the idea for the Mawari Network began when he co-founded the digital art festival MUTEK Japan with Takeo Yatabe in 2016. There, they recognized not only the enormous potential of XR, but also the significant challenges artists face when creating real-time immersive content, such as data intensity, computing power, and scalability.
“In 2017, we set out to solve these problems, believing that ‘framed’ media (content confined to the screen) would evolve into ‘frameless’ media where virtual objects interact seamlessly with the real world,” said Ramirez. said.
In 2018, Mawari was commissioned by Japanese telecommunications giant KDDI to stream Aiko, an AI-based digital human, in real-time 3D to AR glasses. Mawari accepted the offer to stream Aiko with full 3D rendering and real-time interaction, but quickly realized that the existing technology was not scalable. This experience led to the creation of the Mawari Engine and ultimately the development of the Mawari Network in 2022, Ramirez said.
Mawari Network works behind the scenes to deliver real-time 3D content for VR, AR and XR devices.
“Just as Netflix streams video content to devices in the Internet video generation, Mawari streams immersive, interactive 3D content to XR devices such as smart glasses or headsets,” Ramirez explained. “Mawari handles the heavy computing tasks (rendering) on powerful computers around the world, ensuring smooth performance with minimal lag. This means your device doesn’t have to do all the processing, so you can have a smooth, immersive experience wherever you are. There is.”
Ramirez said Mawari has no direct competitors to web3, but is often compared to the Render Network (RNDR). However, the main difference with Mawari is that it performs rendering in real time, whereas Render performs it offline. In the web2 world, companies like Hololight offer XR streaming services for industrial use cases, but rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to scale. Ramirez called it a “failure point.”
Mawari said it holds three patents and has 11 more in progress related to 3D streaming. It currently serves 40 customers, including global brands such as T-Mobile, Netflix, and BMW, and claims to generate an average of $1.5 million in revenue per year.
Mawari Network mainnet release schedule
The Marwari Network is currently in active development on Solana’s Devnet and plans to launch its mainnet in the first quarter of next year, Ramirez said.
The network is also preparing to sell node licenses in the fourth quarter of this year to expand its infrastructure. This will include spatial streamer nodes, validator nodes and application nodes, Ramirez said.
When asked how much Mawari plans to raise through node sales, Ramirez said a set amount has not yet been determined. The focus is on achieving decentralization and ensuring sufficient supply for Phase 1 launch.
Mawari currently has 20 employees, and Ramirez plans to hire five to six more for network engineering, business development and marketing functions.
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