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Crunch Lab, the core developer behind CrunchDAO, has raised $5 million in strategic funding to advance its decentralized AI network which is a blockchain-based intelligence platform credited with fueling research breakthroughs at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
According to the official announcement, the latest investment round, co-led by Galaxy Ventures and Road Capital, also saw participation from VanEck and Multicoin Capital, bringing Crunch Lab’s total funding to $10 million.
The capital infusion will drive the development of an institutional-grade “intelligence layer” for decentralized AI applications across sectors including healthcare, finance, and energy.
Jean Herelle, Co-founder and CEO of Crunch Lab, said the decentralized AI network offers a scalable way for enterprises to harness collective intelligence securely.
“When thousands of practitioners compete, you uncover solutions even the best internal teams miss,” — Jean Herelle, Co-founder and CEO, Crunch Lab, in a statement.
Herelle emphasized that instead of competing for limited data science talent, businesses can tap into a global pool of experts via the decentralized AI network while preserving data privacy and intellectual property.
At its core, the decentralized AI network transforms enterprise forecasting and modeling challenges into encrypted modeling competitions. Data scientists from around the world participate anonymously, building predictive models that are evaluated and rewarded based on accuracy and performance.
Galaxy Ventures General Partner Will Nuelle described the project as a potential “intelligence layer” for global enterprises.
Whether predicting asset prices, optimizing energy demand, or advancing healthcare diagnostics, CrunchDAO’s crowdsourced models unlock smarter, faster decision-making, Will Nuelle, General Partner, Galaxy Ventures.
This blockchain-based incentive structure is designed to decentralize how AI intelligence is built, eliminating the barriers of centralized ownership and bias while promoting transparent collaboration.
The newly secured funding will help Crunch Lab expand the decentralized AI network’s reach beyond financial modeling and biomedical research to industries such as supply chain optimization, urban planning, and environmental monitoring.
As noted by Galaxy Ventures, the firm sees decentralized AI as a critical component of the next technological wave that merges artificial intelligence with Web3 infrastructure, enabling secure, distributed innovation at scale.
Crunch Lab’s decentralized AI network has already delivered measurable impact across high-stakes fields. Its crowdsourced predictive models are currently used by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in cutting-edge cancer research. The collaboration reportedly enhanced computer vision algorithms used to detect cancerous cells with greater accuracy.
The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center used our network to train better computer vision models for detecting cancer from cell images, Jean Herelle, Crunch Lab.
Beyond academia, the network has been adopted by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with over $1 trillion in assets. ADIA’s research lab reported “double-digit accuracy improvements” after integrating Crunch Lab’s decentralized AI network into its predictive analytics systems.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Guido Imbens also utilized the platform to build one of the first AI-driven algorithms capable of uncovering causal relationships between economic variables which is a development that underscores the platform’s cross-disciplinary potential.
CrunchDAO, the decentralized governance layer behind Crunch Lab’s ecosystem, continues to attract institutional attention. Earlier in 2025, the protocol was selected for the Solana Incubator’s second cohort, an accelerator designed to advance Web3 and decentralized AI applications within the Solana network.
The inclusion marks a significant milestone for decentralized AI network initiatives aiming to scale beyond niche use cases. According to the Solana Foundation, projects like CrunchDAO exemplify how decentralized infrastructure can power verifiable, collaborative machine learning systems for real-world impact.
Industry analysts note that decentralized AI is becoming a focal point for venture funding, with its promise to democratize access to computational intelligence while maintaining data security, transparency, and performance accountability.
Crunch Lab’s expansion of its decentralized AI network positions it among the leaders in merging AI innovation with Web3 principles, an emerging intersection expected to define the next generation of intelligent, privacy-preserving applications.
Decentralized AI networks represent the next leap in global problem-solving where intelligence is both collective and transparent, Bhaskar Dasgupta, Senior Advisor, Apex Group, in a LinkedIn commentary on AI decentralization.
As the decentralized AI network ecosystem evolves, Crunch Lab’s model could become a blueprint for enterprises and institutions seeking to balance innovation with governance bridging the gap between traditional AI research and decentralized collaboration.
