Vangrid, an Amsterdam-based decentralized physical infrastructure network, has raised $9 million in a seed token round to expand a geospatial data network designed for robotics, autonomous agents and other Physical AI applications. The company said the financing, completed in multiple tranches between August 2025 and January 2026, will support engineering, data operations and network growth after its public product launch.
The round used a simple agreement for future tokens, or SAFT, an arrangement that gives participants rights to receive tokens when they are issued rather than immediate equity. Robert Brighton, Vangrid’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said the company did not disclose its valuation and did not provide board seats to round participants.
HashKey, Borderless, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs and Mapleblock Capital participated, according to Brighton. The raise places Vangrid among a group of blockchain-based infrastructure projects attempting to turn smartphone users into contributors to datasets that have traditionally required specialized mapping vehicles, field teams or proprietary data contracts.
Vangrid’s commercial case rests on demand for detailed, current views of physical places. Robots and autonomous software can require far more than satellite imagery or conventional maps when navigating streets, buildings, industrial sites or rapidly changing environments. The company is betting that a distributed contributor network can collect this information faster and in more locations than centrally operated fleets.
Smartphone captures become verified 3d data
Vangrid allows users to capture spatial information through a smartphone and submit it to the network. The company said those captures are reconstructed into 3D spatial models, checked through its verification system and then made available to customers requesting data from particular locations.
Contributors currently earn bounties after their submissions are verified. Brighton said a Vangrid token is planned for later this year, with the network’s token-based reward mechanics due to be disclosed closer to launch. Until then, the bounty model gives the project a way to pay contributors without requiring a liquid token market to determine compensation.
The network runs on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network, and uses Ethereum Attestation Service to record verification of data batches. An attestation is a cryptographic record that can show a particular claim or dataset passed through a specified verification process. In Vangrid’s model, that record is intended to give customers a traceable link between a delivered spatial dataset and the network’s validation process.
Brighton said Vangrid’s public explorer showed nearly 100,000 verified captures, 200,000 grid events and more than 1,300 batch attestations. The figures indicate early network activity but do not on their own show how many locations have been fully mapped, how frequently they are updated or how much commercial demand has translated into paid data orders.
The project’s web application and Android app are live, while an iOS version is planned. Mobile availability will be central to Vangrid’s model because its supply side depends on people collecting images and spatial information in the course of everyday movement or targeted bounty assignments.
A data supply model for robots and defense users
Vangrid describes its principal customer base as builders of Physical AI systems, a category covering machines and software that interpret and act in real-world environments. Potential uses include robot navigation, autonomous agents and digital models that need ground-level spatial information rather than static, generalized maps.
Brighton also said the datasets could serve defense and government organizations working in areas where GPS is unavailable or unreliable, or where physical conditions change quickly. Such use cases can require frequent collection of local data, particularly where roads, structures or access routes differ from existing map records.
The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with strategic data partners and is discussing AI infrastructure and enterprise services with organizations developing defense and robotics platforms, Brighton said. Vangrid did not name the organizations involved or provide details on the scope, revenue terms or timeline of those potential arrangements.
That leaves the project at an early commercial stage, but its product design addresses a practical issue for emerging robotics systems: acquiring reliable data is often more difficult than processing it. Models can improve rapidly, while the physical world changes street by street, site by site and day by day. A network that can direct contributors to a specific area and validate the resulting material could give customers a more responsive alternative to relying solely on periodically refreshed proprietary maps.
Privacy and verification shape the pitch
Vangrid said faces and license plates are anonymised on the contributor’s device before information leaves it. The approach is intended to reduce privacy risks associated with street-level imagery, particularly in markets where data collection is subject to tighter restrictions or public scrutiny.
The company also distinguishes its network from open crowdsourced mapping systems, where submission quality can vary and customers may need to make their own judgments about data reliability. Vangrid’s onchain verification process is designed to create an auditable record before a capture is delivered to a buyer, although the company has not publicly detailed the full standards used to assess capture quality.
The model also differs from conventional mapping fleets, which can maintain consistent equipment and processes but are expensive to operate and may struggle to cover lower-priority locations at short notice. Vangrid would shift part of that collection work to a distributed network of contributors, using bounties to direct activity toward locations where buyers need data.
Team expansion follows the network launch
Vangrid has a core team of 14 people and expects to hire in engineering and data operations during the coming quarters, Brighton said. The staffing plans reflect the operational demands of converting large volumes of phone-based captures into consistent datasets that enterprise customers can use.
Khalid Benrafik founded Vangrid in July 2025, according to Brighton. Brighton joined as co-founder and CEO in May 2026, several months after the seed round closed and as the network moved into its public launch phase.
The next test for Vangrid will be whether its bounty system can consistently draw contributors to requested locations while maintaining quality standards high enough for robotics, enterprise and government users. Its early onchain activity suggests the collection and attestation system is operating; turning that supply into recurring paid demand will determine whether the network becomes a durable source of spatial data rather than simply a repository of captures.
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