MyShell Secures $11M Investment for Web3 AI Platform

MyShell, a platform enabling artists to develop AI agents and bots, secured an $11 million pre-Series A investment led by Dragonfly.

Dragonfly led a pre-Series A investment of $11 million, with MyShell, a platform where artists can build AI agents and bots, completing the round. The following Web3 VC firms have also joined the round: OKX Ventures, Nascent, Bankless Ventures, Maven11 Capital, and Delphi Ventures.

Angel investors included Balaji Srinivasan, a former chief technology officer of Coinbase and founder of Balaji Funds; Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol; Casey Caruso, formerly of Paradigm; and Santiago Santos, ex-Parafi.

The announcement claims that structured agreements for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants were mechanisms through which MyShell raised capital.

In order to facilitate the development of various forms of user-generated content, such as text-to-speech bots and voice-cloning programs, MyShell is constructing a Web3 AI platform on which developers may construct AI agents and bots.

MyShell CEO Ethan Sun informed The Block that the site had over 50,000 creators and over one million registered users.

The need for individualized AI experiences has grown explosively in the previous year, but right now, most of those experiences are centralized with gatekeepers,” stated Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, commenting on his company’s key role in the funding. By leveraging crypto and decentralization, MyShell returns control of the AI ecosystem to its users.

Sun mentioned that plans to include token awards are presently in the works; however, the site now uses a point-based system to reward users. While planning a token airdrop, he mentioned that points would play a significant role. When a creator’s bot gains traction, they receive tokens, and users can earn tokens by staking them on different AI agents.

There are plans to create a bespoke Layer-2 on the platform in 2024, though it presently supports Polygon and opBNB chains. 

Sun explained that their goal is to build a community of creators and developers rather than rely on any one ecosystem. They plan to prioritize their own L2 as the number of members grows.