Bee Maps, a decentralized mapping project powered by Hivemapper, announced Monday that it has raised $32 million in new funding to expand its global contributor network and expand its infrastructure.
The round was led by Pantera Capital, LDA Capital, Borderless Capital, and Ajna Capital, making it one of the largest funding rounds in the decentralized physical infrastructure (DePin) space this year.
Bee Maps is an application on the Hivemapper network, one of the largest distributed physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) focused on mapping data on Solana.
Hivemapper allows drivers to provide data through an AI-enabled dashcam to detect real-time changes on the road (such as new signs on the road, detours, construction zones, etc.) and quickly update digital maps to ensure accuracy. Bee Maps leverages this infrastructure by awarding the native token $HONEY to contributors who collect street-level imagery.
This raise highlights investors' strong appetite for Bee Maps' vision of real-time, AI-powered maps. In recent months, Bee Maps has partnered with major companies like Lyft and Volkswagen's robotaxi program to bring their mapping data to their platform.
The new capital will be used to distribute more devices, power the AI models that process and update map features, and increase contributor incentives associated with $HONEY.
“With this funding, we are accelerating our global device deployment, expanding our reach, and strengthening our AI pipeline. The issue is supply, not demand,” Hivemapper co-founder Ariel Seidman said in a press release shared with CoinDesk.
Bee Maps is also rolling out Bee membership plans, which reduce initial costs from nearly $600 per month to just $19 per month. Subscriptions bundle hardware, software, and contributor benefits into one package, lowering the barrier for new participants to join the network.
Read more: Volkswagen ADMT uses Solana-based Hivemapper Bee Maps for driverless data
