Venice AI raises $65M Series A at $1B valuation to scale privacy-first AI platform

Venice AI, a privacy-first AI platform, raised a $65 million Series A funding round at a $1 billion valuation, according to an exclusive report by TechCrunch. The round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and North Island Ventures.

The company reported annualized run-rate revenues exceeding $70 million and profitability, with over 3 million active users and an average of 1.7 million API calls per day. Venice AI hosts more than 200 AI models, including uncensored open-source models on its own data centers, and routes queries to closed-source models such as those from OpenAI or Anthropic.

All user input is encrypted client-side and unencrypted only via an external proxy before processing, with no data retained on Venice’s systems. End-to-end encryption is available for some models, though access requires a subscription.

Venice AI’s CEO, Erik Voorhees, emphasized the company’s focus on user freedom and privacy, framing the platform as a neutral tool akin to Bitcoin’s protocol. The platform allows users to select from AI models that generate text, images, audio, and video, with varying levels of censorship and performance.

The company also operates two crypto tokens, VVV and DIEM, which users can stake to generate AI credits. However, only about 8% of users pay with crypto, with the founder citing feature parity with ChatGPT as the primary driver of growth.

Venice AI plans to use the new funding to purchase GPUs and build its own data centers, aiming to reduce reliance on leased infrastructure and improve gross margins.