Blockchain
Mycelium Networks creates a blockchain technology hub
Rishi Mittal, founder and CEO of Fayetteville-based Mycelium Networks, said he moved to northwest Arkansas about a year before the COVID-19 pandemic to start a business in an area that was “very conducive to startups and new ideas.”
Mycelium Networks is a blockchain startup that has deployed hardware to enhance mobile phone networks with cellular signal arrays and collect weather data from stations across Northwest Arkansas. Mycelium Networks has five employees.
“We build connected networks, and blockchain technology is what makes that possible,” Mittal said. “We believe a new internet is being built right now. And it will connect more things to it, not just cell phones and not just humans.”
Since its launch in 2020, the company has raised over $3 million in revenue. This does not include capital gains and funding rounds, one of which is currently underway. By the end of the year, Mittal hopes to raise $5 million, half of which will go toward hardware.
Mycelium Networks has deployed hardware in hundreds of locations across Northwest Arkansas, including cellular signal arrays and weather stations. The company makes money from its blockchain-connected internet equipment, powered by its technology. Part of its revenue is given to its partners where the equipment is installed.
“We are 100 percent focused on Northwest Arkansas right now,” he said. “There are a wave of new technologies that are going to be developed and released over the next couple of decades. We’ve built a company to continue to be able to provide those new technologies to Northwest Arkansas.”
The company plans to remain here as a testing hub for new technologies as they are released. Mycelium Networks recently graduated from the Bounds Accelerator program, hosted by Bentonville-based Cartwheel Startup Studio and the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.