DePIN project Daylight raises $75 million in equity and loan in round led by Framework

Daylight Energy said Thursday it raised a total of $75 million in a funding round led by Framework Ventures.

The new capital is comprised of $15 million in equity and $60 million in "non-recourse project finance capital, secured against infrastructure assets directly," which is essentially a loan to be repaid with earnings, CEO Jason Badeaux told The Block.

Daylight will use the funds to further its development as a decentralized physical infrastructure network ( DePIN ) project focused on energy distribution.

Framework led the $15 million equity raise with participation from A16z crypto, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Room40 Ventures, EV3, Crucible Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Not Boring Capital. The $60 million project finance capital component was led by Turtle Hill Capital, according to a statement .

DePIN is an umbrella term for networks that leverage blockchain technology to decentralize control and ownership of physical infrastructure in the real world. Daylight, founded in 2022 , is building a decentralized protocol that lets users connect their energy devices, such as thermostats, batteries, electric vehicles, and solar inverters, to its app and earn rewards. Last year, the firm raised $9 million in Series A funding led by A16z Crypto.

"To build the largest decentralized energy network in the world, you need to incentivize the behavior change to adopt distributed energy, and catalyze a huge amount of capital behind it," said Daylight CEO Jason Badeaux in a statement. "Crypto is uniquely good at doing those two things, and creates opportunities to align incentives, drive down costs, and rebuild this industry on a foundation of transparency, ownership, and shared economic upside."

Daylight was cofounded by Badeaux, Udit Patel, and Evan Caron, all of whom have backgrounds in the energy industry.

The company also said it is introducing DayFi, "a new yield protocol that opens energy infrastructure to decentralized finance" and will allow investors to "earn yield tied directly to electricity revenues from the Daylight Network’s growing portfolio of solar and storage systems."