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July 22, 2025 – Gaia Labs, creators of the pioneering open-source infrastructure for decentralized AI agents and inference, today announced it has successfully raised a total of $20 million across its Seed and Series A funding rounds. The significant investment was co-led by ByteTrade / SIG Capital (Susquehanna) and Mirana / Mantle Eco Fund, with robust participation from a consortium of leading venture capital firms including EVM Capital, Taisu Ventures, NGC Ventures, Selini Capital, Presto, Stake Capital, FactBlock, G20, Amber, Cogitent Ventures, Paper Ventures, Republic Crypto, Outlier Ventures, MoonPay, BitGo, SpiderCrypto, and Consensys Mesh, among others.
This substantial capital infusion will accelerate Gaia Labs' mission to build the backbone of a truly decentralized AI economy, where intelligence is verifiable, AI agents are sovereign, and the value generated flows directly to users, not centralized platforms. Unlike traditional AI platforms that keep models, data, and governance behind corporate walls, Gaia's infrastructure operates across an open mesh of independently operated nodes, granting developers and users full control over the creation, deployment, and monetization of AI.
"We believe AI inference should be an open resource, not controlled by a handful of corporations," said Matt Wright, CEO of Gaia Labs. "This funding lets us scale the infrastructure and 'internet of knowledge' that make user-owned intelligence real. Our goal is to empower individuals and businesses to create, deploy, scale, and monetize their own AI agents that reflect their unique styles, values, knowledge, and expertise."
The funding round follows a period of exceptional growth for Gaia Labs, with its decentralized AI infrastructure already supporting over 700,000 active nodes and generating more than 17 trillion inferences to date. The network spans thousands of App-Chain domains and integrates seamlessly with various blockchain ecosystems, backed by over 1 million wallets, laying the foundation for censorship-resistant and user-governed intelligence.
A key focus for this new funding is the development and launch of the Gaia AI Phone, one of the first consumer smartphones engineered to run Gaia’s decentralized AI natively. Built on Galaxy S25 Edge hardware and leveraging technology from a leading global manufacturer, the Gaia AI Phone enables on-device models, local inference, full data ownership, and offline agents without reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. A limited release is slated for later this year, with an early-access waitlist now open.
"Every so-called AI phone today is basically a data collection device for Big Tech," commented Shashank Sripada, COO & Co-Founder of Gaia Labs. "We built something different: your AI lives with you, your data stays on your device, and you capture the value."
The investment will support four critical strategic areas:
- Mobile AI: Launching the decentralized AI smartphone with native, offline inference and complete data sovereignty.
- Infrastructure Expansion: Scaling node capacity, implementing staking for verifiable inference, enhancing performance, developing advanced developer tooling, and onboarding specialized data, IP, or context for vertical-specific AI responses.
- Open AI Toolkit: Supporting new open-source Large Language Models (LLMs), agent frameworks, and developer integrations to foster a vibrant builder ecosystem.
- Web3 Integration: Building cross-chain bridges and enabling new data partnerships across top blockchains, data availability layers, and compute providers.
"Gaia is building critical infrastructure for a more open and equitable AI future. We’re excited to support a team redefining what user-owned intelligence can become. What impressed us most was not just their innovative technology, but their remarkable traction and clear product-market fit," shared Takashi Hayashida, Managing Partner at Taisu Ventures.
Dimitrios Chatzianagnostou, Chief Investment Officer at Outlier Ventures, added, “Gaia Labs is building essential infrastructure for decentralized AI coordination, and we believe it is uniquely positioned to anchor the decentralized AI category. We’re proud to support their vision as part of our broader Post Web thesis.”
As Gaia Labs enters this next phase, it plans to introduce on-chain governance and a native token, designed to expand community participation, align incentives, and support decentralized coordination across the ecosystem. Community participants are anticipated to receive early access to program updates related to the decentralized-AI smartphone and other ecosystem initiatives (subject to jurisdictional and eligibility requirements).
Gaia's comprehensive ecosystem empowers users to choose from a vast collection of open-source LLMs, add specialized knowledge bases, fine-tune models, and deploy scalable, decentralized AI applications in seconds via an OpenAI-compatible API. The network provides an alternative to centralized AI solutions, allowing for customized, domain-specific AI agents that eliminate generic responses.
Strategic advisors and angel investors, including Tony Gu (NGC Ventures), Scott Moore (Co-founder, Gitcoin), Mario Nawfal (IBC/KOL), Billy Luedtke (Intuition), Lex Sokolin (Generative Ventures), Chainyoda, Dr. Al Zarouni (Dubai Blockchain Center), Francesco Andreoli (Consensys), Vanessa Grellet (Arche Capital), Alex Oak (Co-founder, Forever 21), Scott Parazynski (former NASA astronaut), and Ciarra Pardo (Co-founder, Fenty Beauty), have also contributed to Gaia Labs' vision.
About Gaia Labs:
Gaia Labs is the initial development company behind Gaia, a decentralized AI network that redefines how intelligence is built, distributed, and owned. Its peer-to-peer infrastructure enables anyone to run AI models and agents on a global network of independent nodes, ensuring transparency, privacy, and resilience. Gaia is laying the foundation for a truly user-owned AI economy, empowering individuals and businesses to create, deploy, scale, and monetize their own AI agents. For more information, visit www.gaianet.ai.
Join the Decentralized AI Movement:
Developers, node operators, researchers, and innovators are invited to shape the next wave of user-owned AI. Explore the ecosystem at www.gaianet.ai, contribute to the codebase on GitHub at https://github.com/GaiaNet-AI, follow updates @Gaianet_AI, and join the community at https://discord.gg/gaianet-ai.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, market conditions, the success of product development, the ability to attract and retain customers, and the impact of competitive products and pricing. Gaia Labs undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Compiled by CMO Intern team
