California-based Helium, a pioneer of decentralised wireless communications, has changed its name to Nova Labs and closed a $200m series D equity round.

With the funds, Nova Labs will invest in the Helium ecosystem through hiring and funding additional development resources to improve the network, driving continued wireless protocol support, and building applications on top of the Helium network powered by cryptocurrency.

The company will also invest in growing the team, and working towards a decentralised future of wireless connectivity.

Alongside the investment, Helium, the corporate entity that was founded in 2013, has been renamed Nova Labs, providing a clearer distinction between the corporate entity and the open-sourced Helium network that is owned and operated by the people. Nova Labs will continue to develop and support the advancement of decentralised wireless technologies on the Helium network.

“With Helium, we built the foundation for the world’s first decentralised wireless network, leveraging the power of blockchain to democratise access to the internet at a global scale,” said Amir Haleem, founder and CEO of Nova Labs.“Through Nova Labs, we are expanding our mission, pioneering a cultural movement towards the decentralisation of all wireless protocols.” 

Billions of people worldwide are caught on the wrong side of the digital divide with limited, unreliable or even no internet access. With traditional methods of wireless infrastructure deployment being expensive and slow, it’s impossible to rely on big telecommunications companies to provide coverage. That’s where a decentralised wireless industry becomes a key component of addressing this global issue.

Since the launch of the Helium network in 2019, Nova Labs has enabled global IoT and 5G networks that have created a new category of connectivity and given hundreds of thousands of everyday people the opportunity to build the network from home and earn rewards.

The company’s blockchain-based model empowers people around the world to become a mini cell tower by deploying hotspots and rewarding them in the Helium network’s native token, $HNT, for providing coverage. This incentive model has enabled the Helium ecosystem to build wireless infrastructure faster – more than 4000% growth in a little over a year – than big telecommunication companies at a fraction of the cost. The network launched in 2019 and earlier this year surpassed half a million hotspots, and today provides coverage for over 52,000 cities across 169 countries. 

The funding round was led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Seven Seven Six, Goodyear Ventures, Google Ventures, Liberty Global, NGP Capital backed by Nokia, Pantera Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment fund Telekom Innovation Pool.

“Nova Labs enabled the technology to decentralise wireless, while providing a blueprint for leveraging crypto and blockchain to scale real-world infrastructure at an incredible pace,” said Evan Feinberg, partner at Tiger Global.“We are proud to support Nova Labs in pioneering this effort.”

Ali Yahya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, added: “Helium’s clever use of crypto-enabled incentives spurred the creation of the world’s fastest-growing wireless network; a perfect example of how crypto applications go well beyond currencies. We’re excited for this next phase in Helium’s evolution, as Amir and team build out Nova Labs to compete directly against top-down and centralised internet service providers.”

Nova Labs’ ability to scale wireless infrastructure has been recognised by brands including Goodyear, who is not only an investor but is also exploring ways to become an enterprise customer. Goodyear joins IoT and network industry leaders including Actility, Senet, KORE, X-Telia and Dish who partnered with the network to use its coverage for enterprise users including Volvo, Cisco, Schneider Electric, Accenture, Olympus, One Planet, Careband, Hoopo, Invoxia and Victor.

“Nova Labs is revolutionising the way enterprises connect to the internet, unlocking new levels of efficiency through ubiquitous coverage provided by the Helium network,” saidAbhijit Ganguly, managing director of Goodyear Ventures. “At Goodyear we are committed to putting technology into motion, and we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish with Nova Labs and the Helium network.”

In 2021, the network made history as the fastest-growing wireless network, growing from 14,000 hotspots to 500,000 in just 12 months. The community approved the expansion of the Helium network into 5G. In the first public-private partnership of its kind, the city of San Jose announced it would leverage the incentive model to cover internet plans for 1300 low-income families in the heart of Silicon Valley, working to close the digital divide.

• CalChip Connect, a US IoT and Helium distributor, has launched the first plug-and-play Helium 5G store, in collaboration with FreedomFi and other ecosystem partners. To kick off the launch of the store, customers will have the option to purchase just the FreedomFi LoRaWan and 5G-ready Miner, which is the only HIP-19 approved 5G gateway, or bundle the gateway with an indoor CBRS small cell – the FreedomFi One – or an outdoor CRBS small cell –Baicells Nova 430i-pre-provisoned with FreedomFi software.