Insider Brief
- Masa Network announced a $5.4 million Seed Fundraising Round led by Anagram to build a decentralized data marketplace, with participation from various investors including Avalanche Blizzard Fund and Digital Currency Group.
- Masa aims to shift data control back to individuals, leveraging advanced encryption technologies for privacy, enabling users to contribute and monetize their data while providing developers access to this data for AI model training and application development.
- The funding will support Masa’s Mainnet Launch on an Avalanche Subnet, building on its significant traction of over 1 million connected wallets and 15 million permissioned data points since its launch in August 2022.
PRESS RELEASE — SAN FRANCISCO/ January 23, 2024— (BUSINESS WIRE) — Masa Network, builder of the leading decentralized data marketplace, today announced $5.4M in its Seed Fundraising Round led by Anagram, co-founded by Solana Foundation President Lily Liu and former Polychain President Joe Eagan. Additional investors include Avalanche Blizzard Fund, Digital Currency Group, GoldenTree, OP Crypto, Unshackled Ventures, PEER VC, amongst others.
In the age of AI, data is the new oil. Data has become the most valuable global commodity. The generative AI race is now turning unique and valuable personal data into the next frontier of value creation.
For too long, the world’s most valuable user data has been locked away by Big Tech companies and exploited without user consent or fair compensation. As the demand for personal data continues to grow, users deserve to control their data and get compensated for its use. It’s time for a new data paradigm.
Masa is building a “Decentralized Google,” an open, secure, and incentivized economy for the world’s personal data. It shifts power back to individuals, without compromising data privacy, through leveraging cutting-edge zero-knowledge and fully-homomorphic encryptions.
Users can contribute their data to the network and get rewarded in Masa’s native token. Developers can access this data to train AI models, run analytics, and build innovative applications in a privacy-preserving way.
This most recent seed round brings Masa’s total funding to $9.2M. Funding will be used to support Masa’s Q1 Mainnet Launch on a dedicated Avalanche Subnet through a strategic partnership with Avalanche.
“Masa Network realizes the original blockchain dream — a fair data economy where you own and profit from your personal data. With AI fueling surging demand, Masa arrives at the perfect time. Masa lets you control and monetize your data on a decentralized marketplace. Own your data, control its use, get paid. The future is data sovereignty. The power is yours with Masa.” — Calanthia Mei, Co-Founder of Masa Network
“At Anagram, we think data is the most valuable commodity in the world. Masa uniquely enables users to become owners and more tightly aligns the value of the data with the creator of the data, creating a positive sum environment.” — Joe Eagan, Co-Founder of Anagram.
Since launching in August 2022, Masa has achieved significant traction with over 1 million connected wallets, over 15 million permissioned data points, and over 23,000 testnet node operators. Leading projects like Avalanche, QuickSwap, Injective, Celo, and more are early adopters of Masa’s products. Masa’s invention of zero-knowledge Soulbound Tokens was published at the 7th Cyber Security in Networking Conference (CSNET). In June 2023, Masa graduated top of the class from Binance’s Most-Valuable-Builder Accelerator.
To learn more about Masa, visit here.
About Masa
Masa is building the largest zero-knowledge user data network in the world. Masa is architecting the “decentralized Google” for the AI era: A scalable, secure, and resilient global data marketplace, where billions of users get compensated by their data contribution, and millions of developers build innovative applications using private-by-default user data. Masa has amassed more than 1 million user wallets through exponential growth since launch in August 2022. It was incubated by Coinlist’s Seed Program and Binance’s Most-Valuable-Builder Accelerator.
