In brief
- Helium Inc., the original creator of the Helium decentralized wireless network, is now valued at $1.2 billion after a $200 million round.
- The firm will be known as Nova Labs going forward to help differentiate the team from the community-run, crypto-powered network.
Helium provides a unique use case for crypto tokens as a decentralized wireless network powered by token incentives—and the platform has surged in size over the last year. Now the founders and core contributors behind the network have raised significant new funding to keep building, albeit under a new name.
Today, Helium Inc. announced a $200 million Series D funding round performed at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion, bringing the firm’s updated valuation to $1.2 billion. The round was co-led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund.
The firm also announced it now will be known as Nova Labs, part of an effort to help alleviate confusion between the Helium decentralized network/project, the blockchain behind it, the Helium token (HNT), and the core team that started it all.
“[Helium] is actually the people’s network,” Nova Labs COO Frank Mong told Decrypt. “We really wanted to change our name to create a clear distinction that we don’t own the network. We are the creators and founders, but we open-sourced it, and it’s important to recognize that the people are the ones that are tirelessly growing and maintaining the network.”
Along with the name change, Nova Labs has granted the Helium trademark to the Decentralized Wireless Alliance, which will be renamed The…
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