OpenLayer, a crypto-AI startup founded by former Robinhood employees, raised $5 million in seed funding. Investors include a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, Geometry, IOSG Ventures, and others. The funding round, structured as a SAFE, began in June and closed in August. OpenLayer, co-founded by Yuchen Jiang, Kevin Yin, and Chen Chen, addresses data access challenges highlighted during their time at Robinhood. The startup functions as an AI data layer, allowing users to contribute and validate data via a Chrome extension. OpenLayer launched as an AVS on EigenLayer, with over 48,575 restakers and a restaked value of 3.38 million ether. The platform is used by firms in social networking, gaming, and AI sectors. OpenLayer plans to launch its own token and expand its team.

OpenLayer, a crypto-AI startup co-founded by three former Robinhood employees, has raised $5 million in a seed funding round.Investors include a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), Geometry, IOSG Ventures, Spartan Group, LongHash Ventures and undisclosed angel investors from crypto projects such as EigenLayer, AltLayer, Puffer Finance and Sei Network, Yuchen Jiang, co-founder of OpenLayer, told The Block.The fundraising process began in June and closed in August, Jiang said. The round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE), he added.Jiang, a former senior software engineer and tech lead at Robinhood, co-founded OpenLayer in 2023 with Kevin Yin, a former senior product manager, and Chen Chen, a former engineering manager, both of whom also worked at Robinhood. Jiang said their time at Robinhood highlighted the challenges of accessing data due to the tight control exerted by tech giants, which inspired the team to build OpenLayer."Despite blockchain technology disrupting data silos on-chain, crucial data stays hidden inside the walled gardens of web2 websites, remaining hard to reach," Jiang said. "For example, new social platforms struggle to compete and bootstrap user experience without access to users' past history on existing platforms. AI agents lack comprehensive insight into users' habits, hindering their ability to offer truly personalized services."OpenLayer functions as an AI data layer, enabling users to contribute and validate data via a Chrome extension and earn points. Application developers can access this user data with user consent, preserving privacy, according to its website. Use cases include training AI models, user targeting and enhanced features."OpenLayer's developer platform enables access to web proofs of user data from various websites," Jiang said. "Through these proofs, developers can confirm that a user, for example, has completed 20 tasks on Fiverr or achieved over $100,000 in trading profits on a centralized exchange — all without needing permissions from the original data source."OpenLayer launched as an actively validated service (AVS) on EigenLayer, an Ethereum restaking protocol. EigenLayer allows developers to leverage Ethereum's economic security infrastructure (validator set and staked ether) to bootstrap their own networks or AVSs. According to an EigenLayer dashboard, OpenLayer AVS currently has over 48,575 restakers and a restaked value of 3.38 million ether (over $10 billion), making it one of the largest AVSs on EigenLayer."EigenLayer is a two-sided marketplace for decentralized security," Jiang said. "Currently, there are more restakers (supply side) than AVSs (demand side), and therefore each AVS can easily get lots of restaked ETH."Over a dozen firms across social networking, gaming and AI sectors are using OpenLayer to access and utilize verified user data, Jiang said. OpenLayer charges fees for data access, he added, but declined to disclose specific amounts.OpenLayer plans to launch its own token in the future, according to Jiang.Currently, seven people work at the U.S.-based OpenLayer, with plans to hire two more engineers, Jiang said.The Funding newsletter:Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my bimonthly newsletter, The Funding. It's free. Sign uphere!

OpenLayer Raises $5 Million for Crypto-AI Data Platform