AI navigation Bee Maps secures $32 million in funding to accelerate the expansion of AI DePIN-driven mapping.

The AI navigation map platform Bee Maps, operated by Hivemapper Inc., announced that it successfully raised $32 million, which will be used to expand its decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) mapping network. This round of financing was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from LDA Capital, Borderless Capital, and Ajna Capital, showcasing the venture capital firms' high confidence in AI-driven mapping technology. This news is excerpted from a report compiled by Donovan Choy for the Lightspeed newsletter.

The map update speed is faster than Google Maps, attracting numerous customers to use it.

Bee Maps is built on the Hivemapper map network, processing image data from global contributors through edge AI technology, and guiding network suppliers through token rewards to provide real-time navigation information including road width, speed limits, fuel prices, and turning restrictions. Compared to services like Google Maps and Apple Maps that rely on traditional fleet surveys, according to official Hivemapper data, Bee Maps updates its maps 5 to 6 times faster. The network has mapped a total of 644 million kilometers of roads, including 21 million kilometers of unique roads, supporting navigation and autonomous driving needs for companies such as Lyft, Volkswagen's autonomous division, NBCUniversal, Mapbox, and HERE.

Hivemapper CEO Ariel Seidman emphasized that these are not small pilot projects, with some transaction amounts reaching six or even seven figures. Drivers choose Bee Maps because Hivemapper can provide data that is unavailable elsewhere.

In the past year, the company's marketing momentum has been strong with the addition of a series of well-known clients. Bee Maps announced in May this year that the ride-hailing company Lyft is collecting real-time crowdsourced street data to improve route planning and support its autonomous driving strategy. Meanwhile, Volkswagen's autonomous driving division revealed in July that it is using Bee Maps to obtain map data for robotic taxis. The Bee Maps website also highlights media and mapping companies such as NBCUniversal, Mapbox, and HERE (formerly Nokia HERE) as users of its technology.

Launch Bee membership service to lower hardware thresholds.

In conjunction with this funding, Bee Maps is launching a new subscription service "Bee Membership," offering a low-threshold entry plan for users in the United States. Users no longer need to pay an upfront hardware cost of up to 589 USD; instead, they can obtain Bee LTE devices, LTE connection services, and Beekeeper fleet management software for just 19 USD per month, with a contract period of 24 months.

Seidman stated that the price has been reduced from a one-time fee of over $500 to a monthly rental of $19, significantly lowering the entry barrier and expanding the user base. This is no longer a niche device, but a global mapping project that anyone can participate in.

The goal is to support machine driving in the future.

Bee Maps' vision is to create a next-generation mapping infrastructure suitable for humans and machines (such as autonomous taxis). It points out in the official blog that traditional maps have not changed for many years and remain at the search and route planning stage, unable to meet the demands of intelligent transportation and automation.

Seidman added that when Bee communicates with clients every day, everyone says the same thing: more data and more coverage are needed. Bee's goal is to illuminate small cities and update maps more quickly in large cities, allowing more trucks and cars to become part of the real-time map.

DePin token HONEY creates economic value

Bee Maps has another feature, which is to provide the token Honey to data contributors. In addition to building an AI map, it also offers a token economy. Bee Maps allows participants to earn tokens by driving and uploading road images, and by sending tokens as tips to data contributors, encouraging more people to upload data images. The tokens can also be consumed or traded on the network.

This article discusses how AI navigation Bee Maps has secured $32 million in funding to accelerate the expansion of AI DePIN-driven maps, which first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.