Vangrid raises $9M seed to build a decentralised spatial intelligence network for the Physical AI era

Dutch startup Vangrid has secured $9 million in seed funding to develop a decentralized spatial intelligence network for smartphones. This innovative platform aims to provide high-fidelity spatial data at the scale and frequency demanded by Physical AI, without the need for specialized capture hardware. By utilizing the cameras and sensors already present in billions of smartphones, Vangrid transforms ordinary devices into a distributed capture network, turning any city or street into an enterprise-ready asset in mere minutes.

Vangrid distinguishes itself from traditional mapping methods, which rely on costly and slow vehicle fleets, as well as open crowdsourcing efforts that lack verification and enterprise-grade quality. The company bridges the gap between these two approaches, offering a direct path to compensation for contributors and verified, provenance-tracked data that users can trust.

With Vangrid, the network scales rapidly, dependent on app downloads rather than procurement cycles, and is designed for continuous, real-time refresh rather than a one-time capture.

Central to Vangrid's success is its onchain verification and edge-computation layer, which ensures data integrity without the need for a centralized fleet. Faces and license plates are automatically blurred on-device before any data leaves the device, and each capture undergoes onchain verification for provenance before reaching the enterprise spatial API. This approach allows Vangrid to guarantee data integrity while focusing resources on network density and AI-native tooling that customers directly utilize.

Robert Brighton, CEO of Vangrid, stated, "We are the eyes for the next generation of AI. Without a decentralized perception grid, billion-dollar robots will remain blind to dynamic human environments." The recent funding round, backed by notable partners such as HashKey, Borderless, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs, and Mapleblock, underscores the market's recognition of spatial ground truth as the foundational infrastructure for the Physical AI era.

Vangrid has established strategic partnerships and is actively collaborating with organizations developing defense and robotics platforms. Real transactions are already being processed through the platform, validating both sides of the decentralized grid. The funding will support the network's bootstrapping, expand its edge-computation pipeline, and deepen enterprise partnerships across defense and autonomous systems.