Andrena Raises $18 Million to Develop Solana-Based Depin Broadband Protocol Dawn

Andrena, a U.S.-based internet service provider, has announced the completion of an $18 million extended Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, and Parafi. The funds will be used to develop Dawn, a Solana-based decentralized broadband distribution network.

Andrena Raises $18 Million in Extended Series A Funding Round to Develop Dawn

Decentralized alternatives to traditionally centralized services are taking advantage of blockchain technology to reach more people. Andrena, a U.S.-based internet service provider (ISP) announced the completion of a successful $18 million extended series A funding round. The round, led by Dragonfly Capital, had the participation of CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, and Parafi.

The company, which serves hundreds of customers across 10 states, including New York, New Jersey, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and Pennsylvania, is introducing a new decentralized physical infrastructure network (depin) project called Dawn, which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network, that will use the Solana blockchain to run its operations.

According to Andrena, this is a step taken to include customers in generating income from commercializing their unused broadband but avoiding the high costs of laying copper wires and fiber optics linked to traditional ISPs. Using the wireless spectrum facilitates the reselling tasks and avoids infrastructure-related problems.

Neil Chatterjee, co-founder of Dawn and Andrena explained that Dawn will be to the internet as solar energy is now to the power grid in some states. He stated:

The same way consumers own and generate their own utility and sell their excess back to the grid, there is now an opportunity to do the same with wireless home and business internet.

The initial rollout of this project aims to reach millions of homes in the U.S., and then expand to other countries.

While there is still no date for the project launch, Dawn has already launched a browser extension that allows users to connect to their network and start validating information, getting rewards for their participation.