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DePIN funding: 14 rounds raised $261.3M, 3 took $250M

By NAUT Research · · 7 min read

$261.3M DePIN funding across 14 DePIN-tagged rounds at 11 companies, announced 1 January to 7 November 2026. Logos: Prime Intellect, Nous Research, Hyperbolic Labs, Beldex, YOM, Perle Labs, Huddle01, Grass, Seeker | Solana Mobile, LimeWire, XProtocol.

DePIN funding since 1 January 2026 comes to $261.3M: NAUT tracks 14 DePIN-tagged rounds at 11 companies, announced between 8 January and 27 October 2026, and the 11 of them that disclosed an amount add up to $261,280,967. 3 rounds hold $250M of that sum, Prime Intellect's $130M Series A, Nous Research's $90M Series B and Hyperbolic Labs's $30M round in October.

Data as of 7 November 2026, read from NAUT's Investment table. The scope is every round record carrying NAUT's DePIN sector tag with an announce date on or after 1 January 2026: 14 rounds at 11 companies, of which 11 carry a disclosed amount and 3 do not. 11 of the 14 rounds were put to outside reports; 7 came back confirmed on a page this article cites, 2 contradicted a stored field, and 2 are left out of the source list because the check cited no second page or its quote did not appear on the page it named. The 3 rounds with no disclosed amount were not put to an outside source, so nothing here says the whole set was source-checked. NAUT Research wrote this report; no one paid for it.

2 stored fields came back contradicted, and both are flagged below rather than printed as facts: outside reports put the 25 May YOM token sale at 27 May, and the official label on the Hyperbolic Labs round is not the one NAUT stores.

Which DePIN funding rounds closed, and who led each?

Every round NAUT holds with the DePIN tag and a 2026 announce date, oldest first. The backer column is NAUT's own record for that round, not a count of every firm that took part.

Date Company Round Raised Backers
8 Jan IDO Not disclosed None on NAUT's record
19 Jan IEO $10,000 None on NAUT's record
19 Jan IEO $7,500 None on NAUT's record
5 Feb IDO $63,467 None on NAUT's record
13 Feb Strategic Round $3M ,
25 Mar IEO $100,000 None on NAUT's record
25 May IDO $50,000 None on NAUT's record
27 May IDO $50,000 None on NAUT's record
8 Jul Series A $130M
20 Aug Undisclosed $8M (lead), ,
14 Sep M&A Not disclosed None on NAUT's record
29 Sep Undisclosed Not disclosed
7 Oct Series B $90M (lead) and 6 more firms
27 Oct Extended Series A $30M ,

6 of the 14 rounds have at least 1 backer on NAUT's record, and 15 firms sit across those 6. The other 8 rounds hold no backer on NAUT's record, which is what NAUT stores and not a statement that no firm was named anywhere. 2 of those outside reports do name firms NAUT's record leaves out: the Bitget report on the YOM strategic round names Avalanche Foundation, CV VC, Protein Capital, Blockraise and Simms International, and the FinSMEs report on Prime Intellect names Radical Ventures as the lead of the $130M round, a lead NAUT's record does not hold.

2 stored values to treat with care. NAUT holds 2 YOM token sales of $50,000 each, dated 25 and 27 May, and the source check on the 25 May row came back contradicted, with the reports placing a single sale at 27 May to 1 June; if those 2 rows are 1 event, the set is 13 rounds and $261,230,967. The Hyperbolic Labs round is stored as an Extended Series A, and the source check on that label came back contradicted, so read the label as NAUT's own field and the $30M and the 27 October date as the checked figures.

Which of the 14 rounds went to decentralised infrastructure?

11 of the 14 rounds, at 8 of the 11 companies, went to teams whose own NAUT description names a decentralised network, shared hardware or distributed compute, and those 11 rounds hold $253,280,967. 3 rounds carry the DePIN tag while the company's own description names a different product, and each is set aside for its own reason:

  • 1 round at XProtocol, the 8 January token sale with no disclosed amount, whose description calls it an entertainment-focused modular blockchain built on OP's Superchain.
  • 1 round at Beldex, the $8M on 20 August, whose description calls it a privacy-first ecosystem of decentralised applications.
  • 1 round at LimeWire, the 14 September M&A with no disclosed amount, whose description calls it a digital collectibles marketplace for art and entertainment.

The 8 that read as DePIN cover compute and AI training (Prime Intellect, Nous Research, Hyperbolic Labs), bandwidth and data collection (Grass, Perle Labs), hardware (Seeker | Solana Mobile), real-time media (Huddle01) and game streaming (YOM, which the Bitget report on its $3M round calls a "DePIN gaming protocol").

Who runs each company, and who backed it?

18 named people across 10 of the 11 companies, from NAUT's team records. Anyone listed can ask NAUT to remove their page at https://naut.so/legal/data-deletion.

How much DePIN funding did each company raise?

Raised in 2026 by the 5 companies above $1M
  1. Prime Intellect$130M
  2. Nous Research$90M
  3. Hyperbolic Labs$30M
  4. Beldex$8M
  5. YOM$3.1M

Prime Intellect, Nous Research and Hyperbolic Labs hold $250M of the $261,280,967. 3 more companies disclosed under $110,000 each, all of it through token sales: Perle Labs $100,000, Huddle01 $63,467 and Seeker | Solana Mobile $17,500 across its 2 tiers. XProtocol, LimeWire and Grass disclosed no amount, so they stay out of the chart.

What this DePIN funding list tells a BD team

  • The money is recent. 6 of the 14 rounds were announced on or after 1 July 2026, and the 4 of those with a disclosed amount hold $258M, so 99% of the sum landed in the last 4 months of the window. The 8 earlier rounds total $3,280,967.
  • 4 teams are the real budget holders. Prime Intellect ($130M, CEO Vincent Weisser), Nous Research ($90M, CEO emozilla), Hyperbolic Labs ($30M, CEO Jasper Zhang) and Beldex ($8M, CEO Kim Beldex) closed priced rounds in 2026. Everything else in the set is a token sale, an M&A record or an undisclosed amount.
  • Compute is where the spend is. 3 of those 4 buy or resell GPU capacity and training runs, so infrastructure, data and tooling vendors have a live budget to sell into at Prime Intellect, Nous Research and Hyperbolic Labs.
  • 8 rounds have no backer on NAUT's record, so the company page, with its founders and CEOs, is the faster door than the cap table for those 8.
How a BD team can work these DePIN rounds
  1. Start with the 4 priced roundsPrime Intellect $130M, Nous Research $90M, Hyperbolic Labs $30M and Beldex $8M closed priced rounds in 2026.
  2. Pick the compute buyers3 of the 4 run training or GPU capacity, so a compute, data or tooling pitch has a named budget.
  3. Open the person pageCEOs Vincent Weisser, emozilla, Jasper Zhang and Kim Beldex each have a NAUT page with the channels NAUT holds.
  4. Work the 8 with no backer on recordFor those 8 rounds the founder page is the only door NAUT lists, so go straight to the company page.

What this tells a DePIN founder

How a DePIN founder can use this list
  1. Target the repeat backerNVIDIA Venture Capital is on NAUT's record for 2 rounds in this set, Prime Intellect and Nous Research.
  2. Match your stageRobot Ventures led a $90M Series B and Sigma Capital led an $8M round, the only 2 leads on NAUT's record here.
  3. Pull the co-investorsThe Nous Research round holds 7 firms on NAUT's record, each with its own NAUT page and team.
  4. Ask a funded peer for the intro4 teams closed priced rounds in 2026 and their founders are on NAUT with the channels NAUT holds.

How to reach the decision makers

Every company, investor and person named here links to its NAUT page, which lists the team, the stored rounds and the people to contact. 18 people across 10 of the 11 companies appear above, and each company page lists the rest of its team. The 15 backer firms on NAUT's record for these 6 rounds each have a NAUT page with their own team.

Related reading on NAUT: DePIN projects: 98 on NAUT, $1.72B raised by 64 and Crypto AI funding: $365M in 11 rounds, 2 Series Bs in 1 day.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes, through the same API the site runs on. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects?sector=DePIN&sort=recent&limit=100 with the header Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY returns the DePIN-tagged companies behind this article, GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/prime-intellect returns 1 company with its team, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/multicoin-capital returns a fund's portfolio rows with the round type, the amount and the announce date. Each data call costs 5 credits, so Essential at $49 a month and 3,000 credits covers 600 calls; the documented parameters sit in the API docs and the plans on pricing. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial to open the channels for these 18 people.

DePIN funding FAQ

How much did DePIN startups raise in 2026?

$261,280,967, across the 11 of 14 DePIN-tagged rounds that disclosed an amount, announced between 8 January and 27 October 2026 and read from NAUT's Investment table on 7 November 2026. The 3 rounds with no disclosed amount are XProtocol's 8 January token sale, LimeWire's 14 September M&A record and Grass's 29 September round.

Which DePIN funding round was the largest in 2026?

Prime Intellect's $130M Series A, announced on 8 July 2026, with NVIDIA Venture Capital on NAUT's record for the round. Nous Research's $90M Series B on 7 October, led by Robot Ventures, is next, then Hyperbolic Labs's $30M on 27 October.

Which DePIN investors backed more than 1 round in 2026?

NVIDIA Venture Capital is the only firm on NAUT's record for 2 of these 14 rounds, Prime Intellect's $130M and Nous Research's $90M. 15 firms in total sit on NAUT's record across the 6 rounds that hold a backer.

Where can I find these DePIN teams and their contact channels?

On NAUT: the 11 companies and the 18 people named in this report each have a NAUT page, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects?sector=DePIN&sort=recent&limit=100 returns the same DePIN-tagged set through the API for 5 credits a call. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial to reach the founders behind the $261,280,967.

Sources

Outside reports for the 7 rounds whose stored amount and date came back confirmed on a page NAUT could cite. The X handles of Prime Intellect, Nous Research and Hyperbolic Labs were also checked and confirmed against each company's own site.

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