- Strategic finance of $10.8 million has been raised by Mawari Network from sources including 1kx and Borderless Capital.
- A network for scaling spatial computing is being constructed as part of the Solana DePIN project.
In a strategic fundraising round, Mawari Network, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) focused on spatial computing, raised $10.8 million. The DePIN is located on Solana.
According to Mawari Network on Thursday, Accord Ventures, Animoca Brands Japan, Blockchange Ventures, Draper Dragon, Samsung Next, and others participated in the round co-led by Anfield Ltd., Borderless Capital, and 1kx.
The round was also joined by angel investors, including Sean Carey, a Borderless Capital partner and co-founder of Helium, Joshua Frank, the CEO of The Tie, Pete Townsend, the head of Techstars Web3, and Ivan Brightly, the former chief information security officer at Galaxy Digital.
Luis Oscar Ramirez, co-founder and CEO of Mawari, said that as part of the agreement, Carey has become a member of the board of directors of Mawari Network.
According to Ramirez, Mawari finished the strategic round last week after starting to raise money for it in March. The financing, he continued, was set up as a token warrant arrangement with a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE).
After raising $6.5 million in February 2023, Mawari has now received $17.3 million in total capital after this strategic investment round.
Mawari is a DePIN project centered on spatial computing scaling, situated in Solana. By fusing digital and physical data, spatial computing enables technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) to let people interact with their environment.
According to Ramirez, Mawari translates to “your surroundings” or “look around” in Japanese. He clarified that in 2016, while co-founding the digital arts event MUTEK Japan with Takeo Yatabe, the concept for Mawari Network was born.
They acknowledged not only the enormous promise of XR but also the major obstacles that artists had to overcome in order to produce immersive, real-time content, like data intensity, processing power, and scalability.
“In 2017, we set out to solve these issues, believing that ‘framed’ media (content confined to screens) would evolve into ‘frameless’ media, where virtual objects interact seamlessly with the real world,” Ramirez stated.
The Japanese telecom behemoth KDDI hired Mawari in 2018 to provide real-time 3D streaming of its AI-powered synthetic human, Aiko, to augmented reality glasses. After Mawari’s request was accepted, she streamed Aiko with real-time interactivity and complete 3D rendering, but she soon discovered that the technology was not up to the task. According to Ramirez, this experience influenced the construction of the Mawari Engine and, eventually, the Mawari Network in 2022.
Mawari Network works in the background to provide real-time 3D video for VR, AR, and XR gadgets.
“Just like Netflix streams video content to your device in the Internet video generation, Mawari streams immersive, interactive 3D content to XR devices like smart glasses or headsets,” Ramirez said.
“Mawari ensures seamless performance with the least amount of latency by doing the heavy computational work (rendering) on powerful machines worldwide. This implies that wherever you are, you may enjoy a smooth and immersive experience because your device won’t have to handle all of the work.”
According to Ramirez, Mawari is frequently likened to Render Network (RNDR) but has no direct competition in the web3 space. But the main distinction between Mawari and Render is that Mawari does rendering in real-time, whilst Render executes it offline.
According to Ramirez, Mawari Network is actively developing on Solana’s devnet and intends to launch its mainnet in the first quarter of the next year.
In order to further develop its infrastructure, the network is also getting ready to sell node licenses in the fourth quarter of this year. According to Ramirez, this will involve spatial streamer nodes, verifier nodes, and application nodes.
Mawari hasn’t determined on a specific goal amount to raise through the node auction, according to Ramirez, when asked. Achieving decentralization and guaranteeing adequate supply for the phase 1 launch are the main priorities.
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