Prósperians - I wanted to provide an update on the on-the-ground progress we’ve made during the last few months.
First of all, we’re excited to announce that we’ve closed a strategic fundraising round led by Coinbase to expand economic freedom, bringing out total funding north of $150M.
We’re accelerating on two fronts - in Honduras and in the US. Creating Freedom Cities in the US would enable the US to stay on the leading edge of and accelerate key technologies in traditionally regulated industries like energy, biotech, industry and more. If you want to support unleashing Freedom Cities in the US, sign up for the Freedom Cities Coalition at https://www.freedomcitiescoalition.com/
In parallel, we’ve continued to grow in Honduras. Whilst some domestic institutions have attempted to create uncertainty around the status of existing ZEDEs in Honduras, the consensus from many legal scholars is that no such uncertainty applies to already formed ZEDEs. Article 96 of the Honduran Constitution expressly states that rulings can’t apply retroactively, and Deloitte has written a legal opinion explaining why new rulings can't apply to existing projects, which have acquired rights and are protected via existing international trade treaties. The Próspera ZEDE Technical Secretary Jorge Colindres has decided to march on and continue operating in full effect.
Whilst all of this has been ongoing, we’ve seen continued user growth and activity on the ground. Some of the highlights include:
- Infinita (formerly Vitalia) is currently hosting a major pop-up city in Próspera as we speak. They are expecting 500-1000 people over the coming 8 weeks. Only a few places left for February!
- Infinita-affiliated companies have raised over $10M
- The Duna tower have gone from almost empty a few months ago, to having over 40 full time residents, and growing quickly
- Westy, an automated tax management startup incorporated in Próspera, raised ~$2M
- Unlimited Bio is launching their cutting-edge gene therapy in Próspera
- Major crypto startup Blink is incorporating in and growing Próspera
- Several new team members joining on the ground, article in FEE.
- New real estate projects planned, including third party RE developers starting modular housing projects in Próspera.
- We’ve run several successful iterations of the monthly Próspera Weekends, next opportunities coming up are at the end of February and March!
For the on-the-ground community we have an active WhatsApp group. For the online community members, we’re now consolidating all of the different groups we previously had across Discord, Telegram and Circle (community builders network) into only the Discord server. Join it to learn how to get involved!
