Ritual raises $25M to make AI decentralized 😳; Expectations reset: Adyen surges as investors welcome greater clarity 🤑🚀; Klarna CEO thinks they could be a $1 trillion company 👀
FinTech is Eating the World, 9 October
Hey Everyone,
Happy Thursday! Today’s issue is really interesting as we’re going to look at Ritual which just raised $25M to make AI decentralized (the USP & why this is very interesting), Adyen surging as investors welcome greater clarity (what happened & why it didn’t surprise me + some more reads & deep dives into Adyen and beyond), and Klarna whose CEO thinks they could be a $1 trillion company (how likely is it + a closer look into Klarna’s remarkable transformation). Let’s jump straight into the fascinating stuff 🌶
Ritual raises $25M to make AI decentralized 😳
The news 🗞️ AI startup Ritual has raised $25 million in seed funding to build an open infrastructure for AI models, aiming to provide wider access to AI technology.
The seed round was led by venture capital firm Archetype, with participation from Accomplice, Robot Ventures, and others.
Let’s take a look.
More on this 👉 Ritual was founded by Niraj Pant and Akilesh Potti, who have backgrounds in blockchain, crypto, and data analytics. Their goal is to decentralize access to AI models and infrastructure, which is currently controlled by a handful of big tech companies like Google GOOGL 0.00%↑, Amazon AMZN 0.00%↑ , and Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑.
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Ritual plans to use cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and blockchain technology to offer verifiable integrity, privacy protections, and censorship resistance for AI systems. This allows the models to be run transparently on a decentralized network, rather than on closed proprietary systems.
The USP 🥊 The founders argue that decentralized AI will bring the benefits of transparency, open collaboration, and integrity to AI in the same way that blockchain does for cryptocurrencies. They see it as a way to ensure AI develops as an open platform accessible to all, rather than being dominated by a few corporations.
Ritual prepares to launch its decentralized AI network publicly in 2024. And it could be one of the most exciting launches next year. Here’s why: