DePIN project SendingNetwork raises $7.5 million from Balaji Srinivasan and others

SendingNetwork, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project focused on web3 communications, has raised $7.5 million in a seed expansion funding round.

Several investors participated in the round, including Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, Web3.com Ventures, Galxe, SWC Global, Balaji Srinivasan and Yield Guild Games co-founder Gabby Dizon, SendingNetwork said on Tuesday.

The round was structured as a simple future equity agreement (SAFE) and closed last October, Mason Yang, co-founder of SendingNetwork, told The Block. He does not want to comment on the valuation.

The expansion round brings SendingNetwork’s total funding to $20 million, following a $12.5 million seed round early last year.

What is Shipping Network?

SendingNetwork is a DePIN project that aims to decentralize communications by building a new transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack. TCP/IP is a set of protocols that govern communications on the Internet and enable data transfer between devices.

“As we rebuild the TCP/IP stack and integrate it with application layer protocols such as XMPP/SMTP/HTTP/FTP, but starting with web3 [extensible messaging and presence protocol]this opens up countless possibilities, including improved streaming and improved CDN [content delivery network] performance and faster decentralized storage retrieval,” Yang said.

Overall, SendingNetwork strives to provide a communications experience that is more efficient, secure, and flexible for developers and users alike. For example, the company is developing a “decentralized router” that it says will replace IP addresses with wallet addresses.

From web2 to web3

Before founding SendingNetwork in 2022, Yang and his co-founder Joeyz Yu built MoboTap, the company behind the Dolphin internet browser, one of the first Android browsers, which has more than 200 million users worldwide. Dolphin was majority acquired by Nasdaq-listed ChangYou.com in 2014 for $91 million.

After acquiring Dolphin, Yang and Yu shifted their focus to web3 in 2022, “inspired by the rise of Ethereum and reflecting on the challenges faced by the Dolphin browser,” Yang said. Google removed Dolphin from the app store in 2022 due to API access violations. However, user outrage led to Dolphin’s reinstatement, Yang said. He added that this experience taught him the importance of community support and strengthened his belief in web3’s decentralization promise.

SendingNetwork will be built on Linea, Consensys’ Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain, but will technically support all Ethereum virtual machine-compatible chains, Yang said.

SendingNetwork is also building SendingMe, a decentralized application that combines chatting, socializing and trading, giving users full control over their social layer, Yang said.

SendingNetwork launch and plans

SendingNetwork is expected to launch several testnets this year and mainnet in the first quarter of 2025.

There are currently more than 30 people working for SendingNetwork and it appears the team will expand by hiring more developers, Yang said.

The Web3 communications industry is still at a “very early stage,” Yang said, adding that it does not view its competitors as rivals but as “merely friends or allies,” and that one such ally is XMTP Labs, which is a builds a decentralized communication system. protocol.

SendingNetwork’s real competitors are “the giants of web2, who control vast user bases, data, computing power and capital. We are just taking our first steps to wake them up,” Yang said.