Key Highlights
Dragonfly led the $65 million round alongside Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, F-Prime, Archetype, Liquid2 Ventures, and Morgan Creek, valuing Venice AI's equity at $1 billion.
Series A investors received an 8.98% equity stake, a vesting grant of 1.5 million VVV tokens, and warrants to buy another 5 million VVV tokens over the next eight years for roughly $66.5 million, bringing potential total capital to $131.5 million.
Venice reached 3 million users in April and became profitable in Q1 2026, with annualized revenues above $70 million. The company plans to use the funds to build its first data center and expand into new markets.
Erik Voorhees' privacy-focused crypto-AI startup closed a $65 million Series A at a $1 billion equity valuation, making Venice AI the latest crypto-adjacent unicorn. Dragonfly led the round, joined by Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, F-Prime, Archetype, Liquid2 Ventures, and Morgan Creek. This is Venice's first round of outside capital.
Investors received an 8.98% equity stake plus a vesting grant of 1.5 million VVV tokens and warrants to purchase another 5 million VVV tokens over eight years for approximately $66.5 million. If fully exercised, total capital raised reaches around $131.5 million. Both the token grant and warrants lock for one year before vesting linearly over three additional years.
Venice positions itself as an uncensored, privacy-first alternative to mainstream AI platforms. It gives users access to over 200 models and does not store prompts on its own servers. The platform hit 3 million users in April and turned profitable in Q1 2026, with annualized run-rate revenues exceeding $70 million. Voorhees said the new capital will fund Venice's first owned data center, reducing reliance on leased GPUs, as well as market expansion and targeted acquisitions. Venice holds more than 30 million VVV tokens and has not sold any to date, and plans to continue buying back and burning VVV with a portion of revenue.
