Ora, a blockchain project to incorporate AI into decentralized applications (dapps), said it raised $20 million in funding from investors including Polychain, HF0 and Hashkey Capital.

The fresh funds will allow the project "to continue developing its technology and infrastructure for tokenizing AI models and bringing decentralized AI to the Ethereum ecosystem," according to a press release.

Ora, founded in 2022 and describing itself as a "verifiable oracle protocol," provides developers with tools needed to build end-to-end trustless and decentralized applications that rely on AI, its project documentation states. An oracle supplies real-world information such as prices, temperatures and other data to a blockchain.

"Their Optimistic Machine Learning (opML) technology is the foundational mechanism behind their revolutionary product, opp/ai," according to the press release. "Through optimistic systems and zero-knowledge technology, it will provide secure and efficient on-chain machine learning with privacy-preserving features."

Ora also offers what it calls "initial model offering," or IMO, where ownership of open-source AI models can be tokenized.

Kartin Wong, a co-founder of Ora, said in the statement that the project could "unlock the design space for AI dapps."

AI Fundraising

Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.