io.net Raises $30M to Solve the AI Compute Shortage By Building “The Internet of GPUs”
In Brief
io.net raised $30M funding in a Series A round to solve the AI compute shortage by building “The Internet of GPUs”.
NEW YORK, MARCH 5, 2024 — io.net, the largest decentralized network for GPU compute, today announced a $30 million Series A round. The Series A was led by Hack VC with participation from Multicoin Capital, 6th Man Ventures, M13, Delphi Digital, Solana Labs, Aptos Labs, and OKX, as well as prominent industry leaders including Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenk, Aptos founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, and Jin Kang of Perlone Capital. The Series A round also saw heavy participation from Asia based funds including Foresight Ventures, Longhash, SevenX, ArkStream, and MH Ventures. The capital will be used to expand the team, accelerate growth of io.net Cloud, and continue building IO Network into the largest decentralized GPU network in the world.
IO Network is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that aggregates underutilized GPU resources into scalable virtual clusters for AI and ML companies. io.net Cloud, developer and user interface built on the network, makes it easy to deploy and manage GPU Clusters, including their type, host, location, GPU types and security level, with just a few clicks.
“AI is not just here to stay, it’s accelerating at a blistering pace. Demand for compute is outpacing supply, increasing costs and reducing choice for engineers. We’re clustering GPUs from geo-distributed sources and democratizing access to them at a fraction of the cost of centralized cloud services,” said Ahmad Shahid, io.net Founder and CEO. “This funding will help us grow the team, decentralize the network, and march toward our mission of making AI a ubiquitous resource to the world.”
In March 2023, io.net was selected as one of the winners of the Solana Hyperdrive Hackathon, which spanned more than 7,000 participants and 907 final projects. Four months later, the company unveiled io.net Cloud at Breakpoint, Solana’s annual community summit, in Amsterdam. In the short time since launch, the network has grown to over 24,000 GPUs and has processed over thirty thousand compute hours for customers like YC startup DL Software.
“The io.net protocol allows customers to save up to ~90% on their cloud AI costs”, said Ed Roman, Managing Partner at Hack VC. “In an age where GPU chips are in high-demand with global shortages, that is simply an incredible accomplishment. The team hustles harder than just about any team we’ve seen in web3, and their drive and resolve will serve them well in the coming years. We’re grateful to be partnering with them.”
Beyond offering on-demand GPU resources, which are in incredibly high demand due the AI Renaissance, IO Network also offers a structural cost advantage over traditional hyperscalers, like AWS and Azure. Rather than repackaging and marking up AWS, io.net incentivizes un- and under-utilized resource providers—such as independent data centers, crypto miners, or consumer GPUs—to list their capacity on the IO network. io.net Cloud then virtualizes those resources, giving developers nearly-infinite scalability and control over their clusters for a fraction of the price.
“io.net has the potential to democratize GPU compute at a time when GPUs are a scarcest commodity in the world,” said Shayon Sengupta, Investment Partner, Multicoin Capital. “Industry analysts are still radically underestimating how much compute power will be needed to fuel the next generation of AI apps. io.net is the only credible solution to onboarding new GPU capacity next to building a new fab manufacturing center from the ground up.”
In December last year, io.net announced major partnerships with Render Network and Filecoin to supply their hardware in the IO Network. Businesses like Krea.ai are already using io.net’s decentralized cloud services for powering their AI model inferences.
In February this year, io.net announced The Ignition Rewards Program to incentivize network and community members who provide GPU capacity, use io.net Cloud compute for their applications, or engage with the project on social media and in Discord. The program announcement came ahead of the project’s expected IO token launch later this year.
To learn more about io.net, become a capacity supplier, or to access compute capacity for a fraction of the cost, please visit https://www.io.net.
About io.net
io.net deploys and manages on-demand, decentralized GPU clusters in the IO Network. IO Network is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) of geo-distributed GPUs from multiple sources. Hundreds of thousands of GPUs are accessible today in IO Network, and this Internet of GPUs is specifically architected for low latency, high processing demand use cases like AI/ML ops and cloud gaming. io.net democratizes access to GPU compute capacity while reducing costs, expediting lead times, and expanding choice for engineers and businesses. Access compute capacity for a fraction of the cost or become a capacity supplier at https://www.io.net.
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About Hack VC
Hack VC is a web3 venture capital firm that partners on- and off-chain with hackers building the future of the Internet. The firm invests in blockchain infrastructure and web3-native companies with investments across 100+ companies and protocols. Hack VC runs hack.labs(), an in-house tech platform for institutional grade network participation, through which its team of blockchain engineers and quant researchers provide liquidity, stake, make open-source contributions, and more. In addition, Hack VC created and hosts hack.summit(), a global developer community and one of the world’s largest blockchain programmer events, with 130K+ attendees from 150+ countries across events to date.
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Gregory, a digital nomad hailing from Poland, is not only a financial analyst but also a valuable contributor to various online magazines. With a wealth of experience in the financial industry, his insights and expertise have earned him recognition in numerous publications. Utilising his spare time effectively, Gregory is currently dedicated to writing a book about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
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Gregory, a digital nomad hailing from Poland, is not only a financial analyst but also a valuable contributor to various online magazines. With a wealth of experience in the financial industry, his insights and expertise have earned him recognition in numerous publications. Utilising his spare time effectively, Gregory is currently dedicated to writing a book about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
