Offline Protocol
Founded 2024 · 5 employees on LinkedIn · 5 known investors
Offline Protocol builds a mesh networking software and network layer that lets apps and devices communicate, authenticate, and coordinate when the internet is unavailable, using BLE and WiFi Direct with encrypted sessions. It serves teams operating at the disconnected edge and developers building offline-capable apps.
Also known as The Offline Protocol
Founders & leadership
Offline Protocol was founded in 2024 by Satvik Sethi.
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Offline Protocol is a software and network layer for peer-to-peer communication, authentication, and coordination when internet connectivity is unavailable. It packages three primitives into a single SDK surface: DORS (Dynamic Offline Relay Switch), a multi-transport mesh routing layer running Bluetooth LE, WiFi Direct, internet, Reticulum, and Nostr concurrently with continuous transport scoring, sub-second failover, and multi-hop relay bounded by an 8-hop TTL; OfflineID, a self-sovereign Ed25519 identity that two devices can verify directly with zero connectivity, with private keys held on device and rotation and revocation anchored on-chain; and Service Discovery, which lets a device advertise a capability that peers up to eight hops away can discover and invoke in a request/response pattern without a server or DNS. Sessions are encrypted end to end with MLS (RFC 9420), so relay nodes forward ciphertext they cannot read.
Additional shipped components include a reliability layer with acknowledgment, backoff retry, deduplication by message ID and per-message TTL; chunked, resumable file transfer up to 100 MB with per-chunk acknowledgment; zero-knowledge proof-of-location attestation intended to work under GPS denial; and opt-in telemetry that emits nothing until an application installs a sink, then streams metrics, transport switches, routing decisions, and MLS lifecycle events in-process with identifiers scrubbed by default. Peering is budgeted and scored on signal, availability, battery, uptime, stability, and load, with devices acting as cluster members or as bridges between clusters, and better-charged devices taking on relay duty. OfflinePay, offline-capable payments over the mesh, is described as in development.
The developer surface is a TypeScript API over a Rust core, with a React Native binding shipping the same SDK on iOS and Android, plus an API-key workflow, guides, and API reference in the hosted documentation. A fleet console (ops.offlineprotocol.com) provides live mesh visibility such as units live, failover time, and hop counts.
Founding story
Offline Protocol was founded by Satvik Sethi, previously Global Product Lead of Web3 at Mastercard and a two-time acquired founder in the social impact and consumer social space. His stated aim was a connective "alternate-web" spanning devices without stable internet, targeting settings that lack internet infrastructure (rural areas, outages at festivals or in disaster zones), that need only local communication and payment channels rather than bandwidth (manufacturing, agriculture, medical clinics, refugee camps, replacing RFID, NFC, and radio), or that deliberately avoid full internet access (digital detox, wellness retreats, camps).
Business model
Offline Protocol sells and distributes infrastructure rather than an end-user application: developers integrate a cross-platform SDK (TypeScript over a Rust core, iOS and Android via React Native) using API keys, while enterprise and fleet engagements begin as scoped pilots. Every consumer install of an app built on the SDK deploys a network node, so each integration extends mesh coverage for all other applications on the protocol.
Public materials describe developer access via SDK and API keys and enterprise pilots, but do not state pricing or revenue terms.
Traction
Company materials state the network is live across 350,000+ devices in 80+ countries, with 10,000+ active mesh clusters (10,247 cited on the homepage), 300,000+ OfflineIDs issued (350,000 OfflineID holders cited in a homepage counter), 9,000+ SDK downloads, and 50,000 app downloads. The company reports the network grew on product pull, with each consumer install adding a node.
Latest developments
Technology and solutions pages carry a last-updated date of August 2026 and list mesh networking, service discovery, the reliability layer, file transfer up to 100 MB, offline identity, zero-knowledge proof of location, and offline telemetry as shipped and callable in the SDK. OfflinePay, offline-capable payments on the mesh, is described as in development.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
The company positions itself as infrastructure for the "disconnected edge," arguing that conventional connectivity stacks assume a tower, access point, or server that brokers identity and routing, and claims its Service Discovery is the only discovery-and-invocation primitive in production that survives loss of internet. It frames demand around published figures it cites for 2025: 313 internet shutdowns across 52 countries, 4.62 billion people affected, $19.7B in blackout losses to the global economy, and $75M per hour lost by businesses hit by cloud outages.
Differentiators presented by the company include running five transports behind one message API with live scoring and sub-second failover instead of a single configured link; identity that verifies device-to-device with no certificate authority or registry to reach; capability discovery and invocation across up to eight hops with no server or DNS; MLS encryption by default with keys that never leave the device; observability that emits nothing until the application installs a sink; and a network effect in which every app built on the SDK extends coverage for every other app.
Technology
The stack combines DORS multi-transport mesh routing over BLE, WiFi Direct, internet, Reticulum, and Nostr with automatic sub-second failover and 8-hop relay; MLS (RFC 9420) end-to-end session encryption by default; OfflineID Ed25519 self-sovereign identity verified device-to-device with trust-on-first-use pairing and on-chain rotation/revocation anchoring; serverless service advertisement, discovery, and request/response invocation; a reliability layer with fragmentation, queuing, ack/retry, and dedup; chunked resumable transfer up to 100 MB; zero-knowledge proof of location; and opt-in in-process telemetry. Implementation is a Rust core with a TypeScript API and React Native bindings for iOS and Android.
Go-to-market
Self-serve developer adoption through the SDK, documentation, quickstarts, and API keys is paired with direct enterprise engagement via "book a pilot" scoped to a customer's fleet, environment, and success criteria. Industry-specific solution pages and a blog covering downtime costs and shutdown statistics support the funnel, and consumer app installs seed network coverage that supports further integrations.
Developers building offline-capable applications, and teams operating where connectivity is unreliable: robotics and autonomous systems needing swarm coordination under GPS denial, edge AI agents requiring broker-free peer discovery, logistics and fleet operators in yards, ports, and dead zones, agriculture, industrial, energy and maritime sites such as mines, rigs, plants and vessels, humanitarian and public-sector responders during disasters and blackouts, live events and dense venues, payments and mobile wallet providers, and retail point-of-sale operators facing outages.
Geography
The company reports its network running across 80+ countries on 350,000+ devices, with a live coverage map. Its pre-seed round was raised from US investors, and Indian business media covered the raise.
History
The company was previously backed by the Alliance accelerator, which its website states invested $350,000 in Offline Protocol. In March 2025 press reports described a $1.1 million pre-seed round led by Portal Ventures. Product documentation frames the company as building an infrastructure layer and ecosystem for offline-first applications, and by mid-2026 its site described DORS, OfflineID, Service Discovery, reliability, file transfer, proof of location, and telemetry as shipped primitives, with OfflinePay in development.
Risks & controversies
Reported metrics on devices, clusters, identities issued, and downloads are company-published and vary between counters on the same page (for example 300,000+ OfflineIDs issued versus 350,000 OfflineID holders, and 9,000+ SDK downloads versus 50,000 app downloads). The reported $15 million pre-seed valuation was described in press coverage as rumored.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 2
launches, deals, and filingsPress coverage reported a $1.1 million (INR 13 crore) pre-seed round from US investors, led by Portal Ventures with participation from Seed Club Ventures and angels Paul Taylor, Rahim Noorani, and Rushi Manche (founder of Movement Labs), at a valuation reported as rumored at $15 million.
$1.1M source ↗
Press coverage stated Offline Protocol was previously backed by the Alliance accelerator, which per Alliance's website invested $350,000 in Offline Protocol and other companies in its batch.
$350K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Offline Protocolofflineprotocol.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Offline Protocol do?
- Offline Protocol is a mesh transport, identity, and coordination layer that keeps apps and devices working without internet.
- Who founded Offline Protocol?
- Offline Protocol was founded by Satvik Sethi in 2024.
- Who are Offline Protocol's investors?
- Offline Protocol's investors include Portal Ventures, Alliance DAO (ex DeFi Alliance), Draper Associates.