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Poseidon Secures $15M Seed Funding to Build Blockchain-Powered Decentralized AI Data Infrastructure Tackling Training Data Shortages
Coin WorldTuesday, Jul 22, 2025 12:22 pm ET
2min read
Aime SummaryPoseidon, a San Francisco-based startup focused on building a decentralized data infrastructure for artificial intelligence, has secured a $15 million seed funding round led by A16z Crypto, the venture capital arm of Andreessen Horowitz. The investment targets a critical challenge in AI development: the scarcity of high-quality, legally cleared training data. The platform aims to create a decentralized pipeline for AI training, leveraging blockchain technology to ensure data provenance, traceability, and monetization for contributors while mitigating legal risks for developers.
“LLMs and compute are no longer the bottlenecks; it’s high-quality data that’s missing,” said Sandeep Chinchali, Poseidon’s chief scientist and chief AI officer at its incubator, Story Protocol. The startup’s solution integrates Story Protocol’s onchain licensing infrastructure to enable data contributors to tokenize and monetize their work. This approach contrasts with traditional AI development, which often relies on centralized, proprietary datasets controlled by large corporations. By decentralizing data sourcing, Poseidon seeks to address the growing demand for niche, high-context datasets required by advanced AI models in fields like robotics and spatial computing.
The funding round reflects broader industry trends, as institutional investors increasingly prioritize decentralized infrastructure to address systemic issues in AI development. A16z Crypto’s founder, Chris Dixon, described the project as a step toward “a new economic foundation for the internet,” emphasizing its potential to reward creators for supplying inputs critical to next-gen AI systems. The startup plans to use the funds to scale its infrastructure, including launching contributor modules, software development kits, and licensing tools for developers and data suppliers. Early access to the platform is expected to begin this summer.
The need for decentralized solutions is underscored by the limitations of centralized data sourcing models. A16z analysts highlighted that easily accessible datasets—such as books, websites, and public records—have been largely mined, leaving AI models reliant on fresh, legally usable data. However, coordinating the distributed effort required to source, label, and maintain physical datasets remains a significant challenge. Centralized approaches lack the scalability and diversity needed for next-generation AI, the analysts noted, making decentralized alternatives like Poseidon’s more viable.
Poseidon’s model also aligns with regulatory and ethical debates surrounding AI training data. Recent lawsuits against tech giants over alleged copyright infringements have exposed vulnerabilities in centralized data strategies. By ensuring IP clearance and using smart contracts to automate licensing, Poseidon offers a framework that could reduce litigation risks while fostering equitable compensation for data contributors. This aligns with industry demands for more transparent and legally resilient data ecosystems, particularly as AI models grow in complexity and data requirements escalate.
The $15 million raise is part of a broader shift in venture capital toward infrastructure projects that decouple AI development from monopolistic tendencies in traditional tech. While early-stage ventures in this space face technical and operational hurdles, the influx of capital from top-tier investors like A16z signals confidence in the long-term value of decentralized data ecosystems. If successful, Poseidon’s platform could set a precedent for how AI training data is sourced, licensed, and monetized, positioning the startup at the forefront of a transformative industry shift.
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