Following our recent announcement sharing that RockawayX is the lead investor in Teneo’s $3M seed round, we’re diving deeper into what makes this project a game-changer!
Teneo is tackling one of the biggest problems in the digital economy—Big Tech profiting off user data while users receive nothing.
In this Q&A, the Teneo team shares their journey, vision for a decentralized data economy, and what’s next as they continue to scale.
Q1: What’s the Teneo origin story?
Our journey into decentralization started long before the launch of Teneo. Since 2017, we’ve been building Web3 products with a strong focus on DePIN, proving how decentralized models can unlock real-world value. One of our earliest ventures was tokenizing a shared Tesla fleet, where we saw firsthand how machine data – just like many other high-value data sources – was locked away in centralized silos, controlled by corporations and accessible only to those with deep pockets.
The same issue became even more obvious with social media data – one of the most valuable digital assets today. While businesses and institutions rely on it for insights, it remains heavily restricted behind paywalls, gated APIs, and Big Tech monopolies. The people actually generating this data get no control or share in its value.
That’s why we built Teneo. By leveraging DePIN, we’ve created a decentralized network where users contribute access to social media insights through Community Nodes – and get rewarded for it. Instead of scraping or storing data in centralized silos, Teneo enables real-time access, making public social data instantly available for businesses, researchers, and AI models.
Q2: Big tech has made billions of dollars from user data, while users have received nothing. Can you describe Teneo’s viewpoint on this problem?
At Teneo, we believe data is one of the most valuable assets of the digital age, and for too long, control over that data has been concentrated in the hands of a few corporations. Social media platforms thrive on user-generated content and engagement, yet users receive no share of the wealth created by their activity.
This imbalance is unsustainable, and Teneo is here to change it. We believe in data decentralization, where access to public data is decentralized and individuals are fairly rewarded for contributing to the network. By leveraging blockchain and DePIN models, we’re breaking down traditional data silos and ensuring users, not platforms, benefit from the value they create.
How does Teneo help put data ownership back into the hands of social media users?
Our approach is quite straightforward, as we enable users to contribute to a decentralized data network and get rewarded for it.
- The Teneo Community Node is a browser-based extension that allows users to unlock and share public social media data, ensuring privacy and security while participating in the network.
- Users earn Teneo Points, which will later convert into Teneo Tokens after our Token Generation Event (TGE).
- Unlike traditional models where corporations control and sell data, Teneo distributes the value back to the people who help create it.
- All collected data is strictly public—Teneo does not access personal messages, comments, or private interactions.
Q3: The Teneo community already comprises 3.5 million users. What is your team looking to implement moving forward to keep the momentum rolling?
Reaching 3.5 million users across 191 countries is a major milestone, but we’re focused on building long-term value and expanding the ecosystem. Here’s what’s next:
- Teneo Dashboard Extension – A more advanced interface for users to track earnings, referrals, and network activity. Including a responsive mobile version.
- NFT & Token Utility – Integrating NFT-based access and new token-driven incentives to create a deeper user experience.
- Enterprise & AI Integration – Expanding partnerships with AI, finance, and marketing sectors that rely on real-time social data.
- Community Engagement & Education – Integrating an interactive learning bot that allows users to complete quests to better understand the Teneo Ecosystem.
Q4: How has the RockawayX experience been so far, and what are you looking forward to most in the future?
Partnering with RockawayX has been an incredible experience so far. Their deep understanding of Web3 infrastructure, decentralized finance, and blockchain ecosystems has provided us with invaluable support.
RockawayX shares our vision of challenging traditional data monopolies and creating a decentralized future where users are empowered. Their strategic guidance and network will help us scale faster, optimize our tokenomics, and expand our ecosystem.
If you want to participate in Teno’s vision, check out their website, download the community node, and start being rewarded for your contribution.
About RockawayX
RockawayX is a $2B AUM investment firm backing leading Web3 founders. In addition to venture investing, RockawayX focuses on long-term value creation by providing liquidity and engineering resources to accelerate go-to-market and achieve exponential growth faster. To date, RockawayX has invested in 74 projects across the Solana, Ethereum and other ecosystems. For more information about RockawayX, please visit rockawayx.com
