The nexus between blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI) is drawing a lot of attention from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists throughout the globe in the always changing digital landscape. The most recent fundraising activity is highlighted in this issue of Atom News’ VC Roundup, which includes prominent businesses like Lombard, Redacted, RedStone, and Covalente.
Lombard: Revolutionizing Bitcoin Restaking
Together with Babylon, Lombard has successfully closed a $16 million seed fundraising round to create a revolutionary Bitcoin restaking environment. Polychain Capital led the funding round, with participation from dao5, Nomad, Foresight Ventures, and ABCDE. Significant exchanges that participated in this round included Bitget and OKX.
The flagship offering from Lombard, LBTC, is a yield-bearing, liquid version of Bitcoin (BTC) that can be moved as collateral across decentralised finance (DeFi) networks. The goal of this product is to release the BTC staked on Babylon’s protocol’s liquidity. Former executives from Maple Finance, Argent, and Coinbase are leading the startup.
Sentient: Advancing Open-Source AI Platforms
A $85 million fund has been raised by Sentient, an AI research organisation, to create an open-source AI platform. Framework Ventures, Pantera Capital, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund spearheaded the investment round. Sentient, which takes inspiration from ecosystems such as the Super Intelligence Alliance, aims to make it possible for developers to monetarily generate their open-source models and data.
The portfolio manager at Pantera Capital, Cosmo Jiang, expressed enthusiasm about the coming together of blockchain and AI, saying, “Every company will use AI as a tool in the future, just as every business has adopted the internet in the past 20 years.” The categories of “AI businesses” and “Non-AI businesses” will not be distinguished. Numerous blockchain-enabled companies will specifically use AI to solve challenges.
ORA: Monetizing AI Models Through Blockchain
Another cutting-edge firm, ORA, is making money for developers by using blockchain technology and AI algorithms. Early in June, Polychain Capital, HF0, and Hashkey Capital contributed $20 million to ORA. With the help of the protocol, anybody who purchases a token will be able to own and split the profits made by an AI model.
Bittensor: Decentralized AI Model Marketplace
Additionally, Bitternsor, a decentralised platform for creating and utilising AI models, has received funding from Pantera Capital. As a marketplace, Bittensor allows users to build, train, and distribute AI models while receiving incentives for their efforts. Pantera made a big investment in early 2024, though the precise amount was not revealed. Jiang underlined this point of emphasis in their portfolio. Pantera is very confident in the potential of AI and blockchain convergence, as seen by its $200 million investment in AI projects.
Redacted, RedStone, and Covalente: Emerging Blockchain-AI Innovators
A number of other blockchain-AI businesses are gaining attention from investors. RedStone, Covalente, and Redacted have all revealed significant capital raises from June, mostly from seed rounds. These businesses are creating cutting-edge solutions at the nexus of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, which further highlights the growing interest of investors in this industry.
Final Thoughts
Venture capital investment is booming in the blockchain and AI space, with companies like Lombard, Sentient, ORA, and Bittensor leading the way. These businesses are developing cutting-edge new products and technologies that have the potential to completely change markets and reshape the technological landscape. We may anticipate more ground-breaking inventions and heightened investor interest in this exciting field as blockchain and AI continue to converge.
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