Time seems to accelerate when running a startup and this year roared by. We focused not only on building a Hotspot and completing a new physical blockchain, but also on launching what would quickly become the largest public LoRa network in the United States.

As we turn the page on 2019 and push forward into 2020, I feel it’s important to reflect on what happened in the year at Helium and share our focus for the start of this new decade.

Huge thanks

First things first, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our Helium employees, customers, and investors.

Thank you for believing in this mission we started in 2013. I’m extremely proud of what the team has accomplished and look forward to continuing this momentum in 2020.

Reflecting on 2019

A common reaction when we first shared our mission with others was: quite an innovative idea, but would people buy into it? Would individuals pay $495 to purchase a Hotspot and help build the network?

Also to achieve our goals, we needed to secure additional funds to grow the team, and accelerate development. Would investors share our belief and be willing to hand over funds to help us execute?

In 2019, we were thrilled that both customers and investors participated in ways that exceeded our expectations.

Raising funds and increasing the team

This year we raised a Series C co-led by Union Square Ventures and Multicoin Capital, with participation from our existing investors Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital, GV, and HSB/MunichRE Ventures.

We were fortunate to welcome Nick Grossman, Partner at USV, and Salle Yoo, former GC of Uber, as our newest board members.

Plus, we grew the Helium team by adding key members to engineering, both on the blockchain and firmware side, and sales and marketing.

Spreading the word: events and press

We participated in a number of programs this year, with launch events in San Francisco, New York and Austin (our first launch city). We also took part in partner events and conferences in LA, Santa Clara, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Minneapolis, Miami, and more.

We’re not slowing down and are already deep into planning for 2020. In addition to visiting our community across a number of US cities in Q1, we’re also heading to Austin in March, where Helium will take the SXSW stage for the first time. Sign up for our Block newsletter here to keep up with the latest Helium news and events.

Fast Company, TechCrunch, Forbes, Fortune, VentureBeat, SF Chronicle and many other publications covered the Helium story in 2019. And 19 years after our co-founder Shawn Fanning graced the cover of Time Magazine for founding Napster, Helium received a special mention in Time’s 100 Best Inventions of 2019. Our press coverage can be found here.