Samsung and Qualcomm have backed FreedomFi’s profitable $9.5 million collection A funding spherical. The IT giants and others look like putting a wager on the way forward for decentralized crowd-sourced 5G networks powered by the lure of cryptocurrency.

Boulder, Colo.-based FreedomFi, a spin-off of cloud software program firm Mirantis, is a software program startup that permits crowd-sourced small mobile base stations. The cell stations are put in on rooftops to create a decentralized 5G community. The corporate is partnered with Helium, a peer-to-peer wi-fi community firm that makes use of low-power nodes to create a community for sensors and trackers.

The three most important monetary backers from this spherical of funding embody BlueYard Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Samsung Subsequent, Samsung’s enterprise capital arm. These high three accounted for about $8 million of the funding. Smaller traders additionally pitched in.

FreedomFi, which has annual gross sales of about $10 million, gives firmware and small-cell {hardware} that energy Helium’s 5G community, making it attainable for customers to attach and earn HNT tokens (Helium’s personal cryptocurrency) for offering service to close by cell units.

The companies envision extra than simply informal web use. The tech might energy Web of Issues units, automated manufacturing unit gear, warehouse automation, and different giant scale makes use of on an open, peer-based community. Customers acquire entry through a SaaS platform.

FreedomFi is the one firm providing firmware for the 5G gateways Helium makes use of – they usually plan to deploy 50,000 models by the top of 2022. On LinkedIn, FreedomFi founder Boris Renski, who can also be a co-founder at Mirantis, celebrated the profitable funding spherical, saying, “Paying folks in crypto to place small cells on their roofs appeared completely loopy a 12 months in the past. Feels good to know that … Qualcomm and Samsung are simply as loopy as us.”

In an interview with CRN, Renski mentioned the corporate will use the backing to double its present worker base of 27, forge new partnerships with producers and different cell gamers, and bolster analysis and growth efforts.

Renski mentioned one key space of the corporate’s development will contain linking its know-how with Wi-Fi 6E, the quicker and fewer clogged 1.2 gigahertz spectrum that can grow to be accessible within the subsequent 12 months or two after getting the FCC’s blessing final 12 months. “We’re going to spend a substantial quantity of effort going past simply the mobile 5G small cells that we’ve got launched – these targets will assist increase the overall protection of a community.”

FreedomFi can also be aiming to make the small cells extra inexpensive. At present the 5G small cell prices $2,500. Renski thinks that as {hardware} costs fall and the corporate is ready to scale the associated fee down, he expects to drop that worth all the way down to $500 per small cell deployment. Renski mentioned the corporate has deployed about 5,000 small cell bundles since January. His purpose is to have 50,000 cells deployed by the top of the 12 months.

For now, the tech is deployed in giant city facilities, like New York Metropolis, Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay space. Mining crypto in these areas can web about $20-$200 per day in HNT tokens. “If you happen to deploy in a spot the place nobody cares about it, you may be mining zero. So the quantity of rewards is robotically simply primarily based on the usefulness of the placement the place this community node is deployed.”

Renski mentioned practically all of his firm’s gross sales come by means of channel companions.