TLDR
- Venice AI has raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Dragonfly, bringing its valuation to $1 billion
- Coinbase Ventures, F-Prime, North Island Ventures, and Morgan Creek also participated
- Investors received 8.98% of the shares, 1.5 million VVV tokens, and collateral for an additional 5 million tokens.
- Venice AI provides access to 200+ AI models with a privacy-first approach, with 3.5 million users
- The funding will be directed towards building the Venice data center and expanding its user base
Venice AI, a privacy-focused AI startup founded by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Erik Voorhees, has raised $65 million in a Series A funding round. The round values the company at $1 billion, making it a unicorn. It is the company’s first external capital since its launch in May 2024.
Tourist office and the capital
Measured by revenue, Venice has become the largest company at the intersection of artificial intelligence and the crypto economy.
Today we announced Venice’s first round of external capital, a $65 million Series A led by @dragonfly_xyzVenice shares are valued at $1 billion.
Since we…
– Eric Voorhees (@EricVoorhees) July 1, 2026
Dragonfly led the tour. Other investors include Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, F-Prime, Archetype, Liquid2 Ventures, and Morgan Creek.
What investors get
In exchange for $65 million, investors received an 8.98% stake in Venice AI. They also received a merit grant of 1.5 million Venice (VVV) tokens. Furthermore, they have guarantees to purchase another 5 million VVV tokens over the next eight years at a cost of about $66.5 million.
Both token grants and orders are locked for one year, then vest over the next three years.
Venice chose to sell shares instead of its VVV tokens. Voorhees said the company still owns more than 30 million VVV tokens and has not sold any of them yet, even though the token is up more than 700% this year.
Privacy is at the center of the product
Venice AI positions itself as a proprietary alternative to tools like ChatGPT. The platform does not store user claims and encrypts requests before routing them through an external proxy.
For models from OpenAI, AnthropicAnd Google, Venice hides users’ IP addresses and session data. Higher privacy options are available for other models on the platform.
The platform claims to have 3.5 million users and generates annual revenue of over $70 million. Venice said it will become profitable in the first quarter of 2026.
The fundraising comes as concerns over AI privacy grow. A class action lawsuit filed in California accused OpenAI of integrating Meta Pixel and Google Analytics into ChatGPT.com, allegedly sending user data to Meta and Google along with advertising cookies.
Earlier this year, lawyers warned that chat logs from AI legal advice could be used against users in court.
How the funds will be used
Voorhees said the funding will go toward building the first data center in Venice so the company can own its GPU infrastructure instead of leasing it.
The rest will be used to grow the customer base, hire employees, enter new markets, and acquire complementary businesses.
“We are making Venice a large-scale consumer application for at least a few hundred million people and several billion AI customers,” Voorhees said.
The company’s VVV token rose 6% on the day of the announcement.
The gun also has a second code, DIEM. Users can stake VVV to mint DIEM, which provides $1 in API credit on the platform.
