0G Labs Secures $35M Pre-Seed to Develop Modular AI Blockchain Platform

0G Labs Raises $35M in Pre-Seed Round to Build‍ Modular AI Blockchain

As the crypto industry experiences a resurgence, funding for new startups has also gained momentum. 0G Labs, a web3⁤ infrastructure company, has⁣ secured $35‌ million in a pre-seed round, as exclusively ​revealed to ‌The Zero Byte.

Ambitious Funding Goals Surpassed

The $35 million raised by 0G Labs is an impressive sum for ⁣a pre-seed round. Co-founder ​Michael Heinrich initially aimed to raise $5 million to develop the core technology,‍ but the company’s vision attracted⁢ significant investor interest, resulting ‌in the round being oversubscribed‌ by 20 times, with over $100 million in expressed interest.

Modular AI Blockchain⁣ for Enhanced Performance

0G‌ Labs, also ‍known as ZeroGravity, is developing a modular AI blockchain ​that seeks to address the challenges faced by on-chain AI applications‌ in the web3 ecosystem, such as speed ⁢and cost efficiency. By offering a customizable approach, similar ⁢to ordering from a menu at a restaurant, 0G Labs aims to enable developers to‍ configure blockchain ⁣components⁣ to​ best suit their needs. This modularity is ⁣expected‍ to make blockchain applications as performant⁤ and cost-effective as‍ web2 applications.

Filling the Infrastructure Gap

The co-founders of 0G Labs, Michael Heinrich, Ming Wu, Fan Long, and Thomas ‍Yao, recognized ⁣a critical gap in the market for decentralized storage and ⁤data availability‌ infrastructure. They engaged in discussions⁤ with industry players and identified ​the need ​for scalable and decentralized‌ storage solutions to enable on-chain AI⁤ and blockchain scalability. The team, with their diverse backgrounds in ⁣blockchain, venture capital, and entrepreneurship, set out to build this ‍missing infrastructure.

“The investor community realized this was a key ​unlock for the space⁢ so we got a number of ⁢term sheets very quickly. ​Once we chose‍ our lead as Hack VC, the floodgates opened up and we got 20x oversubscribed. We had over $100 million in interest and partnered with the investors who we‌ thought could‍ help us ​the most.”

Broad Investor Support

0G Labs’ pre-seed ⁣round attracted ⁢investments from over 40 crypto-native institutions, including prominent names such as Alliance, Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, Stanford Builders Fund, Symbolic Capital,⁣ and OKX Ventures. The company ​declined to ‍disclose its valuation. The ⁣distributed cap⁤ table aligns with web3 values and reflects the community-driven nature‍ of the project.

Focusing on High Throughput and Security

0G Labs⁣ claims that its blockchain will offer exceptional‌ speed‍ and cost-efficiency compared to competitors. The company ​aims to achieve a throughput of 50 Gbps, significantly ⁢higher than the⁢ 1.5⁢ MBps ‌offered ‌by competitors. This high-performance data pipeline is crucial for on-chain ⁤AI ⁤and gaming applications, where fast and efficient​ throughput ‍is ‌essential to keep ⁢costs low.

Enabling New ⁣Use Cases

Once 0G‍ Labs’ blockchain is fully operational on mainnet, expected by the third quarter of‍ this⁢ year, it will enable a wide range of web2 applications ‍to be ⁤built on-chain. The company envisions its ⁢ideal ecosystem members and users to include layer-2 blockchains like Polygon⁣ and Arbitrum,‍ as well as⁢ high-performance teams ‍developing decentralized applications that require high ⁣bandwidth and anticipate millions‍ of users.

0G Labs aims to enable new use cases that were previously not possible,‌ such as on-chain AI, on-chain gaming, and high-frequency decentralized finance ⁢(DeFi). The company claims that gas ⁢costs per transaction will be negligible, opening up opportunities ‍for more AI applications to evolve and address ⁣larger issues on-chain.

“We want it ⁤to be a public good and serve humanity and it can take many different shapes or forms.”

In the near term, 0G Labs plans to support various use⁣ cases, ranging from⁣ deepfake detection in ⁢AI to building decentralized models​ and assisting high-performance blockchain applications. The ⁣company’s vision is to create a public ‍good that serves humanity and takes on ‌different forms ⁢to address challenging problems.