Donuts CEO Paul Stahura
Donuts CEO Paul Stahura

Donuts, the Bellevue, Wash.-based domain registry that controls extensions like .cash, .email and many more, is looking to back companies innovating in the domain name system with its new Donuts Labs initiative, and today the company announced its first investment: GeoFrenzy.

It’s the first in a series of deals that Donuts expects to make — investing in companies that create new uses for domain names or otherwise complement its core strengths. Financial terms of the deal and the size of Donuts’ stake weren’t disclosed.

GeoFrenzy has developed an infrastructure for creating and managing smart geofences, which are used by apps to define geographic areas and control access for things like drones, smart home appliances and driverless cars. Donuts led the seed funding round, which also included strategic angel investors, but details of the funding haven’t been disclosed.

GeoFrenzy donuts-logo-headerdeveloped GeoNet, a system that pinpoints any location on Earth down to a square centimeter. Users can then create smart geofences with the data that dictate permissions and device capabilities for users in that area.

“A geofence registry will be important as emerging technologies like drones and Internet of things devices will require location context to make autonomous decisions,” said GeoFrenzy advisor Patrik Fältström. “The DNS is a very useful and scalable infrastructure for such a registry, and this investment from Donuts will help further this innovative technology.”

geofrenzy logoBecause GeoNet operates over DNS, it can be cached locally for use offline and includes information like ownership and type of class, important elements to build a standard system that can be used for a variety of applications. In addition to funding, Donuts is also leveraging its experience in the DNS sector to help GeoFrenzy expand.

“GeoFrenzy is the first investment to emerge from our Donuts Labs project, which was set up to foster innovation in and around our space,” said Donuts co-founder and CEO Paul Stahura in a statement. “We look forward to leveraging our experience and core competencies in registry operations, DNS and policy compliance to help the company as it deploys its innovative platform in these interesting new areas.”

“As the new Internet namespace evolves and matures, we see a unique opportunity to grow both organically and through acquisition,” Stahura said. “Strategic investments are another important part of our overall strategy.”

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