Gensyn closes $43m Series A funding round

The firm’s protocol allows developers to build AI systems on smaller data centres, personal gaming computers and other connected hardware and to pay on demand

Gensyn, a provider of blockchain-based computing resources for artificial intelligence platforms, has secured a $43mln, Series A funding round, led by venture capital (VC) giant a16z.

The U.K.-based firm’s protocol allows developers to build artificial intelligence systems on smaller data centres, personal gaming computers and other connected hardware and to pay on demand. Gensysn uses a cryptographic verification network that without the requirement for intermediaries permits users to ensure that machine learning work shared over the protocol has been completed accurately.

The realization of its (artificial intelligence’s) potential needs enormous computational power, Gensysn co-founder Ben Fielding, stated in a PR Monday. We are tapping the electricity of a new age and making it available to everybody at limitless scale and fair market prices.

He added that such extensive availability was necessary for avoiding dangerously biased technology serving the many but built by the few. The key to useful, aligned artificial intelligence is permitting everybody in the world to aid in its development.

In the PR, Gensyn co-founder Harry Grieve also noted that with decentralized networks, value merely accrues to the network as a function of supply and demand.

It also steeply raises the amount of compute supply by connecting previously underutilized hardware from across the world, Grieve added.

The news comes amid soaring interest in artificial intelligence, which could potentially change the way businesses across industries function, including media, retail, manufacturing and financial services. In the past month, computer chipmaker Nvidia, whose products are essential for the GPUs at the centre of artificial intelligence systems, hit a $1trln valuation.

With its most recent round, Gensyn has raised over $50mln and the firm stated it would use the fresh capital to speed-up the introduction of the protocol and to increase its workforce, including recruiting protocol and machine learning engineers. Leading investment companies CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Eden Block and a range of artificial intelligence and crypto VC and angels joined a16z in the round.