Stockholm-based startup Wingbits, focused on building the world’s best flight tracking network, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round. The round, which closed in June, was led by two U.S. VC firms: Borderless Capital, a Miami-based Web3 venture capital firm, and Tribe Capital, a $1.6 billion AUM fund that invests in category-leading traditional and Web3 ventures. Existing investor Antler, Europe’s most active early-stage VC, also participated alongside several angel investors.
Expansion Plans and Focus Areas
With this new funding, Wingbits aims to scale its team, with a primary focus on recruiting additional developers and data scientists. These will join a team already composed of experts from leading tech companies like Klarna, Spotify, and Volvo. The startup also plans to boost its sales and marketing efforts to accelerate its growth.
Wingbits offers a unique flight tracking network that rewards its community of data providers, which includes amateur aviation enthusiasts, for their contributions. Using blockchain technology, the platform compensates contributors based on the quality, coverage, and performance of the flight tracking data their antennas capture. These rewards are issued in a transparent, performance-driven model that has attracted significant attention from the global flight-tracking community.
Growth of the Wingbits Network
Since launching in late 2023 with just 40 antennas, Wingbits has grown its network to 1,600 antennas worldwide within less than a year. This rapid growth is largely credited to word-of-mouth support from the global community, which has been quick to adopt Wingbits’ model of rewarding contributors. This global network provides Wingbits with one of the largest and most reliable datasets for flight tracking in the world.
The data collected by Wingbits’ network is expected to drive significant improvements in aviation by reducing delays, optimizing flight routes, and improving overall efficiency in air travel.
Community-Driven Innovation
Wingbits Co-Founder Robin Wingardh emphasized the company’s mission to bring innovation to a stagnant industry while giving back to the community powering it. “Despite over a decade of advancements in aviation tracking, innovation has stagnated, and the community powering this data has been overlooked. We founded Wingbits to change that—bringing fresh innovation to the industry while ensuring that the community is fairly rewarded for their invaluable contributions,” said Wingardh.
Evan Park, an investor at Tribe Capital, noted, “Wingbits has one of the most unique supply-side user bases out there, composed of passionate hobbyists who contribute hardware because they love flight tracking—not solely for the financial incentives. This reflects in the strength of the Wingbits community, and the industry is only just realizing how powerful tapping into this 100k-strong aviation hobbyist community can be.”
Founding Vision and Expertise
Wingbits was founded in 2023 by Robin Wingardh and Alex Lungu, who met during an Antler residency in Stockholm. Both founders bring extensive technical expertise and startup experience to the table. Wingardh, a serial entrepreneur, has a background in scaling businesses and previously led commercial teams at Klarna. Lungu, a self-taught software engineer, has expertise in building large-scale data systems and worked on mission-critical infrastructure at Klarna before co-founding Wingbits.
Oscar Westergard, Partner at Antler, praised the founding team, stating, “Robin and Alex are a world-class team who have identified a truly unique application for blockchain technology. They are empowering an overlooked but deeply engaged community to create the world’s best flight tracking network. This will lead to real improvements across the global aviation industry.”
With this new funding and a rapidly growing network, Wingbits is poised to revolutionize the aviation industry, tapping into blockchain technology to drive meaningful change for both the flight tracking community and the broader aviation ecosystem.
