Web3-AI Firm ChainML Raises Over $6M in Funding as 2024 Sees Capital Inflow

ChainML, a Web3-enabled AI platform, has secured a landmark investment, boosting the Web3 funding environment. The Silicon Valley-based AI and ML development and research company’s latest investment round, led by Hack VC, brought in $6.2 million (roughly Rs. 51 crore). The platform aims to decentralize access to artificial intelligence (AI). The latest investment follows an upward trend in Web3 funding, which saw a surge in the first three months of 2024 after slowing around the fourth quarter of 2023.

Based in San Francisco, California, ChainML is an open source framework designed to create production-grade AI protocols that could facilitate scalable AI use cases to further develop Web3 solutions. In a new development, the platform also released ‘Theoriq’, a base layer designed to support AI-based Web3 solutions. Such base layers are called agent base layers, which act as agents to support advanced technical protocols.

The concept of merging AI and Web3 by ChainML seems to have earned the trust of multiple venture capital firms.

The Super Seed Funding Round for ChainML it is reported includes other investors such as Foresight Ventures, Inception Capital, HTX Ventures, Figment Capital, Hypersphere Ventures and Alumni Ventures. A press release from one of the investors HTX Ventures said the funding underscores “the confidence and excitement around ChainML’s vision to seamlessly integrate AI into the decentralized blockchain world and revolutionize the AI ​​landscape.”

ChainML co-founder and CEO Ron Bodkin called the investment a “pivotal moment” for the company and the broader AI and Web3 landscape. “With Theoriq, we’re not just releasing a product—we’re spearheading a movement toward a transparent, community-driven AI ecosystem,” he said in the press release. Bodkin said the new funding in his platform will help the firm explore more potential AI use cases in the decentralized sector.

Several Web3 projects managed to raise investment this year. Back in April, citing own data, a Crunchbase report claims that a total of 346 financing deals were finalized for Web3 firms in the first quarter of 2024. The total amount raised in these deals stood at $1.9 billion (roughly Rs. 15,867 crore). In the fourth quarter of 2023, meanwhile, Web3 startups managed to raise $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 10,021 crore) through 263 deals.

London-based Exohood Labs, Seattle-based EigenLabs and Hong Kong-based Freechat have raised $112 million (approx. Rs. 935 crore), $100 million (approx. Rs. 835 crore) and $80 million (approx. Rs. 668 crore), respectively, in new funding rounds in the first quarter of 2024.

According to Crunchbase, New York-based Monad Labs has raised Web3’s largest funding of the year so far, a $225 million (roughly Rs. 1,879 crore) investment with VC firm Paradigm leading in April this year.