Botanika raises $1.5M seed to scale Solana-based DePIN hardware

What's the deal? BotanikaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a developer of a Solana-based decentralised physical infrastructure network (DePIN), has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Backers included CRIT VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Baboon VCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, MarblexDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Daedalus, alongside a group of web3 infrastructure angels.

What's the endgame? The company builds a decentralised storage and computing layer that links physical consumer hardware with on-chain cryptographic ownership. Its flagship product, Nimbus, is a purpose-built device that lets everyday users provision idle storage and compute cycles, forming a distributed network that partitions, encrypts, and handles data storage and AI-related workloads across peer-to-peer nodes on Solana.

Why now? Botanika will use the capital to fund mass production of its hardware, expand its core systems engineering team, and accelerate network bootstrapping to grow its global distributed computing footprint.

The signal: At $1.5 million, the round sits in the 30th percentile by size — modest even for seed. But it reflects continued investor appetite for DePIN projects that tie physical hardware to blockchain incentives, a niche betting that idle consumer devices can rival centralised data centres for storage and AI compute.

Image credit: Generated with Gemini