One of the most talked-about areas in the crypto world recently is the decentralized physical infrastructure, known as the DePin category. Numerous projects have emerged, particularly focusing on decentralizing the control of the internet, with the latest being Andrena.

The Solana-based decentralized internet project raised $18 million in a funding round led by DragonFly. The round attracted major players in the crypto world, including billion-dollar investment firms like CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, and ParaFi.

The initial target for this round was $5 million.

In the Series A funding round, the participating companies were also given equity and token commitments for the future. Co-founder Neil Chatterjee commented, “We received far more demand than we expected in this round. Our target was actually $5 million. With this investment, we’ve now raised a total of $38 million.”

Andrena, which plans to provide decentralized internet services, will operate through a system called DAWN, short for Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network.

Chatterjee mentioned that they have been preparing this system since last fall, stating, “We want to do for the internet what solar panels have done for electricity. People will create their own usage areas and sell the excess capacity back to the system.”

Founded in 2016, Andrena has been providing internet services in 10 U.S. states since 2019.

The date for the token launch has not yet been decided.

Note: This is not investment advice