The funding accelerates Gaia’s vision for a user-owned AI ecosystem, scaling open infrastructure, enabling cross-chain integrations, and bringing decentralized intelligence to mobile.
New York, 24th July 2025, Gaia Labs, creators of open-source infrastructure for decentralized AI agents and inference, today announced it has raised a total of $20 million across its seed and Series A funding.The round was led by ByteTrade/SIG Capital (Susquehanna) and Mirana/Mantle Eco Fund with participation from EVM Capital, Taisu Ventures, NGC Ventures, Selini Capital, Presto, Stake Capital, FactBlock, G20, Amber, Cogitent Ventures, Paper Ventures, Republic Crypto, Outlier Ventures, MoonPay, BitGo, Consensys Mesh, and others.
While centralized AI platforms keep their models, data, and governance behind corporate walls, Gaia infrastructure runs across an open mesh of independently operated nodes, giving developers and users full control over how intelligence is built, deployed, and monetized.
“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.”
This round of funding comes on the back of Gaia’s exceptional growth, 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 integrated blockchain ecosystems, backed by over 1 million wallets. Gaia is building the backbone for decentralized, censorship-resistant intelligence—where AI is not only open and verifiable, but owned and governed by its users.
As part of this investment, Takashi Hayashida, Managing Partner at Taisu Ventures shared, “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.”
“Gaia Labs is building essential infrastructure for decentralized AI coordination, and we believe it is uniquely positioned to anchor the decentralized AI category,” said Dimitrios Chatzianagnostou, Chief Investment Officer at Outlier Ventures. “We’re proud to support their vision as part of our broader Post Web thesis.”
The funding will support four critical focus areas:
- Mobile AI: Launch a decentralized AI smartphone with native, offline inference and full data sovereignty
- Infrastructure Expansion: Scale node capacity, staking for verifiable inference, performance, developer tooling, and onboarding of data, IP or context for vertical specific AI responses
- Open AI Toolkit: Support new open source LLMs, agent frameworks, and developer integrations
- Web3 Integration: Build cross-chain bridges and enable new data partnerships across top blockchains, data availability, and compute
As Gaia Labs enters the next phase of its network rollout, it will 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 expected to receive early access to program updates related to the decentralized-AI smartphone and other ecosystem initiatives. (Participation to be subject to jurisdictional and other eligibility requirements; details forthcoming.)
Bringing Decentralized AI to Mobile
Gaia Labs will launch one of the first consumer smartphones to run Gaia’s decentralized AI natively. Built on Galaxy S25 Edge hardware and engineered using technology from a leading global manufacturer, the Gaia AI Phone runs models on-device, enabling local inference, data ownership, and offline agents without relying on centralized cloud infrastructure. A limited release is slated for later this year, and an early‑access waitlist is now open.
“Every so‑called AI phone today is basically a data collection device for Big Tech,” said 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.”
Gaia Labs’ strategic advisors and angel investors include leaders across decentralized infrastructure, venture capital, AI, and consumer technology. Notable contributors include Tony Gu (NGC Ventures), Scott Moore (Co-founder, Gitcoin), Mario Nawfal (IBC/KOL), Billy Luedtke (Intuition), Lex Sokolin (Generative Ventures), SpiderCrypto, 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), among others.
About Gaia
Gaia is a decentralized AI network redefining 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. Gaia Labs is a company working on the initial development of the Gaia network.
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.
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