Latest news with #DraperAssociates
Associated Press
02-08-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
@ArAIstotle Joins Virtuals Genesis Launch with FACY as the Truth Layer of Web3 to Rewire the Perverse Incentives of the Attention Economy of Web2
Singapore, Singapore August 01, 2025 --( )-- AI Seer is Changing How People Communicate in Real-Time From the Renaissance, deception detection technologies have been used by masters on servants (politics as dirty hands), and this is the first time it is being decentralized to encourage everyone to speak more truthfully and powerfully through AI. Tim Draper and Draper Associates backed AI Seer because the truth is worth defending. Ever wanted to have that statistic or fact at your fingertips but struggled to recall it? According to Draper Associates, 'AI Seer's mission to help everyone fact-check and detect deception in real-time is more important than ever, and AI Seer isn't just building a new category… It's redefining how humans communicate to make it more exploratory, confirmatory, and transparent.' The Genesis of Trust Backed by Draper Associates, has been recognized by TIME as one of the Best Inventions of 2024. @ArAIstotle delivers industry-leading verification accuracy across posts, podcasts, and videos with best-in-class precision and three times fewer hallucinations than leading competitors. Powered by $FACY, ArAIstotle rewards users who verify the truth and help identify and flag misinformation in everyday content in almost real-time. 'We're bridging two revolutions: AI verification and decentralized ownership. With Virtuals, ArAIstotle becomes community property, where every participant profits from keeping humans and bots factual and honest and it improves with community contributions,' said Dennis Yap, Founder & CEO of AI Seer. ArAIstotle delivers real-time fact-checking for crypto, analyzing tweets, videos, and audio with 92% accuracy. The system delivers 3x greater citation accuracy than leading AI search engines (14% error rate vs. 42-94% for competitors), while processing full video/audio clips, making it the only solution capable of trustworthy multimedia verification at scale. $FACY Token Utility The $FACY token is the native transaction and incentive asset of the ArAIstotle ecosystem, powering a scalable, participatory truth-verification economy. It rewards high-quality user engagement, fuels access to premium truth-seeking AIs, and anchors all platform interactions. Rewarding contributions Unlocking premium verification & reports Enabling governance decisions Sustaining a healthy, decentralized economy Proprietary computer vision modules for behavioral analytics Unlike legacy moderation platforms that rely on unpaid, delayed, or opaque processes, $FACY offers a real-time, on-chain, and incentivized system. Users are rewarded for their contributions, empowered with advanced tools, and trusted to guide the platform's future. Building a scalable, transparent, and participatory truth economy. Roadmap ArAIstotle's development follows a clear, community-focused trajectory: The project launches with Twitter/X integration and $FACY token distribution in August 2025, expands to multi-platform verification by September 2025, and introduces groundbreaking behavioral analysis in 2026. 2027 will mark the full launch of the Behavioral Analysis on X. Aug 2025: $FACY token launches with Twitter/X verification bot, Open waitlist for people to get access to the community. Sep 2025: Multi-modal fact-checking (text/audio/video) goes live, plus staking rewards. 2026: AI-powered behavioral analysis detects lies via micro-expressions (e.g., shoulder shrugs, lip presses) that are known to be possible deception cues. 2027: Full launch of Behavioral Analysis, expand the behavioral signal library, and increase accuracy. Launch Details Date: 8th of August 2025 Platform: Genesis Page Link Telegram: Community Group Link About AI Seer ArAIstotle is a truth-seeking agent leveraging Facticity AI and AI Seer deception cue detection tech, delivering high-precision truth verification with faster processing and 3x fewer hallucinations than competitors. The agent provides superior accuracy and speed in verification across all media platforms, positioning it as a leading solution in truth detection. A reliable and scientific truth or deception cue detector has never been dematerialized, and with nothing to deter them, this has led to a race to the bottom between different statesmen. The startup has recently closed 150k USD in funding from Draper Associates, Andreas Weigend, Ph.D., and Lee Han Shish and previously invented the Multi-Spectral Reality Detector ('MSRD'), the world's first contactless system capable of discerning truthfulness and deceptiveness using a lab-tested blend of physiological and behavioral signals which has made more than 400k USD in revenue through a paid pilot and a MVP sale and is being field-tested by law enforcement, geopolitically aligned with Japan's and recognized by global industry bodies and has been green-laned by Singapore's government. The company was also recently selected by Qualcomm AI Program for Innovators 2025 and was in the Grand Finals of the SuperAI Genesis Startup Competition. Contact Information: AI Seer Pte. Ltd. Dennis Yap +65 83050508 Contact via Email Please contact through LI ( before trying to call. Read the full story here: @ArAIstotle Joins Virtuals Genesis Launch with FACY as the Truth Layer of Web3 to Rewire the Perverse Incentives of the Attention Economy of Web2 Press Release Distributed by
Business Insider
30-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Midl Secures $2.4M Seed Investment from Draper Associates and Draper Dragon to Pioneer Native dApp Infrastructure on Bitcoin
Dover, US, July 30th, 2025, Chainwire Midl, an infrastructure that brings smart contracts to the Bitcoin network, enabling native decentralized applications (dApps) and financial products, has announced the successful close of a $2.4 million seed round. The round was led by Draper Associates, the early-stage venture capital firm founded by Tim Draper and known for backing industry-defining companies like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Ledger. It was also supported by Draper Dragon, a cross-border venture fund focused on innovative blockchain solutions, with notable investments in Kelp DAO and This funding milestone marks another step towards Bitcoin's evolving financial ecosystem, spotlighting the growing institutional interest in BTCFi, a new wave of Bitcoin-native decentralized finance. With Midl, developers can now build and run dApps natively on Bitcoin, unleashing the potential of the network's $2 trillion in liquidity. 'It's rare to be this early to something this big,' said Iva Wisher, Founder of Midl. 'Midl makes Bitcoin programmable in a way that's never been done before. Native Bitcoin token standards finally have a home where they can power real apps and real economies. Across trading, DeFi, gaming, governance, and everything in between.' Unlocking the Power of Bitcoin Unlike solutions that rely on sidechains, bridges, or Layer 2s, Midl introduces a native execution environment for Bitcoin, allowing decentralized applications to run directly on the Bitcoin network. This includes seamless support for Bitcoin-native token standards, making them tradable, functional, and usable across products and services from day one. Midl is currently in its testnet phase, with a mainnet launch expected shortly. Several early DeFi protocols are already live on the testnet, with over 20 additional projects currently in various stages of deployment on the network. Alongside the technical rollout, Midl is launching a series of retail-facing initiatives to help kickstart real usage and liquidity within the Bitcoin ecosystem from day one. These efforts are focused on driving early adoption and seeding liquidity across the Bitcoin ecosystem ahead of mainnet. Led by Veterans of Early-Stage Tech Investing Draper Associates is a venture capital firm founded in 1985 by Tim Draper. Known for its forward-looking investment philosophy, the VC has played a pivotal role in funding some of the most transformative tech companies across multiple industries. Draper Associates has a strong portfolio of crypto and blockchain investments, having backed early leaders such as Coinbase, Ledger, and Robinhood. Draper Dragon is a cross-border venture capital firm focused on early-stage Web3 and technology startups. The firm invests in innovative blockchain projects shaping the future of decentralized finance and digital ecosystems, with notable investments including Kelp DAO and About Midl Midl is an execution environment that brings smart contracts to Bitcoin, opening the door to a new generation of decentralized applications built natively on the world's most secure blockchain - with dedicated developer tooling. With Midl, full-scale dApps can run directly on Bitcoin: everything once possible on Ethereum can now be built on Bitcoin. The protocol improves the developer and user experience by allowing multiple EVM-like interactions within a single Bitcoin transaction, unlocking better scalability and throughput. Contact Co-founder Ivan Vishnevskii
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin bull Tim Draper raises $200 million for new venture fund
One of the world's foremost Bitcoin boosters has drummed up another stash of capital. Tim Draper's investment firm, Draper Associates, has raised $200 million for its eighth fund, according to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's website, meanwhile, hints at the fund's launch. 'In 2025, Draper Associates celebrated 40-years of pioneering venture capital and spreading entrepreneurship around the world,' read a page about the firm's history. 'With the launch of Draper Associates Fund 8, the team has its eye on the next 40 years.' A spokesperson for Draper Associates declined to comment. In 2022, the venture capitalist raised almost $124 million for his seventh fund, according to a filing with the SEC. Draper Associates, which specializes in crypto investments, has $2 billion in assets under management, per the firm's website. The firm's latest raise comes amid a crypto boom. The total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies crossed the $4 trillion mark for the first time in history last week as Congress passed legislation that will regulate stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. And Bitcoin has repeatedly notched all-time highs over the past six months, surging past $120,000 Bitcoin OG Draper, who is 67 years old, hasn't always been synonymous with crypto. In 1985, he got his start as a VC when he borrowed $6 million to invest in tech, according to his website. He soon developed a knack for investing in what would become some of the world's hottest companies. The roster of startups he's backed includes Skype, Baidu, Hotmail, Tesla, SpaceX, Robinhood, and a host of other successful ventures. In 2014, Draper made one of his first public splashes as a Bitcoin believer when he paid $19 million to buy 30,000 of the cryptocurrency seized in the U.S. government's takedown of the notorious black market site Silk Road. The bet, which came at a time when many had written Bitcoin off as a failure, today stands as one of the shrewdest in history. Those coins are now worth around $3.5 billion. In the following years, Draper became one of the more outspoken cheerleaders for the world's largest cryptocurrency. He predicted in 2018 that Bitcoin would reach $250,000 by 2022 and, in 2023, repeated the same prediction for the end of that year. The cryptocurrency's price is still a far cry from that figure but, based on its recent performance, the idea of a Bitcoin being worth a quarter-of-a-million dollars no longer seems absurd. Draper has also invested in a host of other crypto ventures, including the U.S.'s largest crypto exchange Coinbase, the crypto wallet developer Ledger, and the prediction markets platform Polymarket. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire fund manager reveals two major red flags to avoid 90% of bad investments
Billionaire fund manager reveals two major red flags to avoid 90% of bad investments originally appeared on TheStreet. Billionaire fund manager Tim Draper has just shared his ultimate mantra to dodge bad investments. Well-known for his VC investments in Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, the Draper Associates founder recently warned against two red flags that he said discerning investors should avoid to save themselves from 90% of bad investments. The first red flag that Draper shared was a company following an easily imitable strategy. If one can Google more than 100 companies doing something similar, then it's a race to the bottom because someone will ultimately do it cheaper. The second red flag Draper revealed was regulation. He said he had seen the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "kill" startups because they "might someday look like an exchange."Notably, the SEC really went after crypto trading platforms for alleged securities violations over the last few years. Prominent crypto exchanges such as Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), Kraken, Ripple, and Binance were not spared from the wrath of the federal securities regulator, which alleged that these platforms were offering unregistered crypto securities. These bitterly fought legal battles in the U.S. put a question mark on the status of leading crypto assets such as XRP, ETH, etc., as to whether they are securities or commodities. Since becoming the president in January 2025, Donald Trump has vowed to turn the U.S. into the "crypto capital of the world.' Taking their cue, the new SEC administration is retreating from an aggressive campaign waged by former Chair Gary Gensler. Both the administration and the industry seem to be working toward the shared goal of achieving increased regulatory clarity around crypto assets. Notably, the week of July 14th is 'Crypto Week' as the Congress considers the CLARITY Act, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, and the GENIUS Act. How these bills progress will be decisive in the future of crypto assets not only in the U.S. but in the world. Draper said entrepreneurs should have more freedom, and regulators should step in only when there's "an actual reason." However, there is also a legitimate concern around the administration letting crypto firms run afoul, given the fact that the First Family's involvement with multiple crypto ventures has often raised eyebrows. Billionaire fund manager reveals two major red flags to avoid 90% of bad investments first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
Business Wire
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Ensemble VC Launches Comprehensive AI Tool to derisk venture capital investments, With Partners Ranging From Sand Hill Road VCs to Silicon Valley's Top Lawyers
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ensemble VC has developed and deployed a comprehensive system to derisk venture capital investments, with partners ranging from Sand Hill Road VCs to Silicon Valley's most respected law firm. Ensemble co-founder and data scientist Gopi Sundaramurthy spent five years developing 'Unity,' which ranks prospective portfolio company teams based on hundreds of objective data points. Unity then ranks teams — including teams with first-time founders — according to their likelihood of commercial success. Unity can then also help portfolio companies build teams with people most likely to excel in their roles, whether in biomanufacturing, machine learning engineering, downstream processing, go-to-market strategy, marketing and communication, HR or other functions. 'Leading venture capitalists are betting their limited partners' money on AI entrepreneurs. But the VC industry, for the most part, hasn't used AI itself to improve performance across all three major functions of its own industry — sourcing, selecting and servicing portfolio companies,' said Dr. Gopi Sundaramurthy, co-founder of Ensemble VC, former Head of Data Science at the Kauffman Fellows VC Fund, and the first data scientist at IBM Watson Health. 'We decided to tackle the trifecta.' VC firms Draper Associates, Boost, Overmatch and others are already collaborating with Ensemble to use the tool, which can be trained on specific investment niches — from SaaS to military tech, fusion and space exploration. And Silicon Valley's preeminent law firm, Wilson Sonsini, is also using Unity to assess which startup clients to pursue. 'No matter how vast your network, human constraints always limited your network and thus your deal flow and potential,' said Tim Draper, the third-generation VC and founder of Draper Associates (formerly DFJ), Draper University, and the hit TV show, Meet The Drapers. His investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Tesla, SpaceX, AngelList, SolarCity, Ring, Twitter, DocuSign, Coinbase and Robinhood. 'Unity helps eliminate the human constraints.' Derisking VC Unity scrapes millions of points on the Internet — from yesterday's X posts and SEC filings to alma maters, obscure details on LinkedIn, and stock performance on secondary markets — to assess founders, team members and anyone else on an early-stage team. Ensemble's system instantly generates navigable market maps, tracking deep networks of investors, employees, and founders as they move across industries. Unity searches dynamically — by investor, company, geography, and sector — ensuring that the firm doesn't miss entrepreneurs or their seed-stage, high-performing startups simply because they don't yet fit pre-existing patterns. Unity also tracks where talent is moving. The data platform provides a real-time view of technical talent flow, anticipating industry shifts before they materialize. This combination of direct technical experience and proprietary data insights gives Unity users an unmatched ability to spot and back the best companies before the market catches up. About Ensemble VC Ensemble VC is an early-stage investor based in Austin, TX. The firm takes a product-centric approach to investing, leveraging the firm's comprehensive data platform to intelligently and scalably support founders. Ensemble invests early in highly technical emerging technologies that span from AI to defense technology. For more information about Ensemble, please visit
