So yesterday, a company called [ZaiNar](https://zainartech.com/) finally showed its face after hiding in stealth mode since 2017. Nine years. That’s an eternity in tech. And honestly, the timing feels right because what they’ve built is wild — a system that turns your existing 5G and WiFi networks into a precision location engine. No GPS. No cameras. No satellites. No extra hardware. Just the wireless signals already bouncing around us.
The core idea is deceptively simple: ZaiNar figured out how to synchronize wireless network timing at sub-nanosecond precision, which is thousands of times more accurate than standard network time protocols. That level of timing accuracy translates directly into sub-meter positioning. Indoors, outdoors, through walls, around corners — places where GPS has always been useless. If you’ve ever lost a GPS signal inside a parking garage or a hospital, you get why this matters.
The [announcement hit TechStartups](https://techstartups.com/2026/02/19/zainar-emerges-from-9-years-of-stealth-with-100m-to-power-physical-ai-using-5g-and-wifi-instead-of-gps/) and [PR Newswire](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zainar-the-foundation-layer-of-physical-ai-valued-at-1b-with-100m-investment-302692801.html) simultaneously, and the investor list alone tells you this isn’t vaporware. Steve Jurvetson — the guy who sits on SpaceX’s board — is an investor and board member. Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder), Tom Gruber (Siri co-founder), and Jaan Tallinn (Skype founding engineer) are all in. They’ve raised over $100M at a $1B+ valuation, and the company claims $450M+ in commercial contracts already signed across healthcare, construction, and smart city projects on multiple continents.
What makes this particularly interesting is the patent position. CEO Daniel Jacker and his team in Belmont, California have filed 100+ patents with 90 issued and — this is the part that made me do a double take — zero rejections. That’s a pretty insane hit rate and suggests the underlying tech is genuinely novel, not just incremental.
They’re positioning themselves as the “foundation layer for Physical AI,” which is a big claim. But if autonomous robots, drones, and warehouse systems all need to know exactly where they are in real time without relying on GPS, then yeah, someone has to build that layer. ZaiNar seems to think they’ve already built it. Given the backing and the contract numbers, I’m inclined to pay attention.
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