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June 13, 2025 – Yupp, the pioneering consumer AI model discovery and evaluation platform, today announced it has successfully closed a $33 million Seed funding round. The round was led by a16z crypto, with participation from notable individual investors including Kunal Shah and Gokul Rajaram. This significant investment underscores the growing recognition of the critical need for transparent, incentivized, and human-driven AI model evaluation.
Modern AI systems, particularly large language models, are increasingly shaped by human feedback through techniques like Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and Direct Preference Optimization (DPO). However, the current landscape of AI model evaluation is often constrained by proprietary data, closed systems, and a lack of transparency, limiting improvements and leaving users with little insight or reward for their contributions.
"We believe crypto can bring transparency and ownership to this murky area of AI," stated a representative from a16z crypto. "Blockchains can make it easier for people to receive rewards for their contributions. They can also provide AI builders with assurances about the quality and provenance of the feedback data and evaluations they’re incorporating into their models."
Yupp: The Credibly Neutral Marketplace for AI Feedback
Yupp addresses these challenges by crowdsourcing model evaluation, creating a credibly neutral marketplace where human judgment becomes a renewable economic resource. The platform allows users to:
- Discover and Compare AI Models: Users can freely explore and compare the latest AI models.
- Provide Feedback: Users submit prompts, view multiple AI-generated responses side-by-side, and select the best ones.
- Earn Rewards: Their choices create digitally signed "packets" of preference data, which are invaluable for AI post-training and evaluation, and for which users receive rewards.
This innovative design fosters a natural flywheel: more user engagement yields fresher evaluations, which in turn lead to better AI models, attracting even more users. This continuous feedback loop ensures that all participants – from users to AI model builders – operate under transparent rules, fostering a fair and auditable marketplace.
The Yupp founding team brings deep experience at the intersection of AI and crypto. Co-founders Pankaj Gupta, who previously ran global consumer engineering for Google Pay and Coinbase, and Gilad Mishne, a former machine learning lead at GoogleX, built consumer-scale machine learning products together in the early days of Twitter. Their early team also includes senior engineers from Google, Coinbase, and top research labs.
"AI needs strong, reliable evaluation based on large-scale human input. Crypto is the trust machine that can help deliver it," a16z crypto emphasized. Yupp aims to become the default evaluation layer for the future of AI, ensuring that the rewards of AI innovation are shared by everyone who helps create it.
The $33 million seed funding will enable Yupp to further develop its platform, expand its user base, and solidify its position as the leading solution for transparent and incentivized AI model evaluation, bridging the gap between human intelligence and AI advancement.
About Yupp:
Yupp is a consumer AI model discovery and evaluation platform that leverages blockchain technology to crowdsource human feedback. It allows users to compare AI-generated responses, providing digitally signed preference data for AI post-training and evaluation, while rewarding users for their contributions.
About a16z crypto:
a16z crypto is a venture capital fund that invests in crypto and Web3 startups across all stages, from seed to Series C and beyond, with a focus on building the next generation of the internet.
Compiled by CMO Intern team
