Venice AI has raised a $65 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, its first external fundraise. The round was led by crypto-focused venture firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, and additional investors. The company reports annualized run-rate revenues exceeding $70 million and says it is already profitable.
The platform gives users access to more than 200 AI models spanning text, image, audio, and video generation, with a stated emphasis on privacy and minimal content restrictions. Venice hosts open-source models on its own data centers and routes queries to closed-source models from providers including OpenAI and Anthropic. All user input is encrypted and decrypted client-side and routed through an external proxy, with no data stored on Venice’s systems. End-to-end encryption is available on select models for paying subscribers.
The company currently serves more than 3 million active users and processes an average of 1.7 million API calls per day, drawing more than 850,000 unique website visitors.
CEO Erik Voorhees, an early bitcoin advocate and founder of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, founded Venice around a philosophy of user privacy and minimal platform interference. The company modifies some open model system prompts to encourage more open responses but says it does not add content restrictions. Voorhees described the service as a neutral platform, drawing a parallel to Bitcoin as a protocol that functions the same way for all users.
Venice launched a crypto token called VVV in January to attract users, alongside an earlier token called DIEM, which generates AI credits redeemable on the platform. Voorhees said approximately 8% of users pay with crypto.
The company plans to use the new capital to purchase GPUs and build out proprietary data center infrastructure, reducing its current reliance on leased compute and improving gross margins.
