Grass Raises $10 Million to Build Decentralised AI and Internet

Grass raises $10 million to decentralize internet connectivity and access to AI data

Grass, the lead producer of Wynd Network, has raised $10 million in a bridge funding round co-led by Polychain Capital and Tribe Capital, with participation from other existing investors.

The round, which was structured primarily as a token purchase, reinforces investors’ confidence in Grass’s vision. Primarily to decentralize internet connectivity and reshape how AI companies access and process web data.

Grass previously received funding in both Seed and Series A rounds. Insiders say this latest raise was not planned but came at a pivotal moment as the project is experiencing rapid commercial growth and adoption.

What is grass?

Grass operates as a decentralized bandwidth network built on top of Solana. It allows individuals to monetize unused Internet capacity by selling their “Internet view.” Through this system, companies and developers can access public web data on a large scale. This provides important data for training and improving AI models.

Users are rewarded through the network’s native GRASS token, which also serves as the protocol’s primary means of value accumulation and governance.

“Grass is a piece of technology that allows companies to access data at an unprecedented scale,” said Andrei Radonjic, co-founder of Grass. “It solves the accessibility problem that AI developers face when building or training models over the open web.”

Fixing the data bottleneck in AI

The AI ​​industry relies heavily on large-scale data collection, yet much of the Internet is subject to increasing restrictions. Grass aims to fix this bottleneck by using distributed bandwidth from its users. This creates a network capable of performing Internet-scale web crawls. This infrastructure can support both AI training and inference, two key components of modern AI systems.

Radonjic explained that AI companies are currently “prohibited” from conducting large-scale crawling operations. Grass offers a permissionless alternative, turning dormant Internet connections into data recovery portals.

“The possibilities are endless,” he added. “We are building live context retrieval—retrieval—the next layer of real-time AI data infrastructure.”

From training data to direct inference

Grass’s short-term commercial success came from selling training data to AI companies that develop models for text, video, and speech. But the next frontier is inferential data — the real-time data that powers generative AI systems as they interact with users.

Grasse wants to be ready for this transition, Radonich said. “We’re seeing incredible growth in selling training data, but our long-term goal is for Grass to become an infrastructure for inference as well.”

This development could make Grass essential for AI developers who need continuous, unfettered access to the public web for model updates and contextual accuracy.

Polychain and the tribe are back on the turf again

The $10 million Grass Bridge round represents Polychain Capital’s third investment in the company. The cryptocurrency-focused fund led both Seed and Series A rounds before returning for this round.

“We’ve rarely come across a team that executes as aggressively as Grasse,” said Polychain’s Josh Rosenthal. “It’s a perfect example of how distributed systems can outperform their Web2 peers. We’re thrilled to have tripled our revenue at this meaningful turning point.”

Tribe Capital also reaffirmed its commitment to Grass, describing it as a benchmark for operational excellence across its portfolio.

“Grass is a product leader,” said Boris Revsin, CEO and Managing Director of Tribe Capital. “We’ve seen seven-figure customers, including the largest AI labs, sign up in the last 12 months. This is what matters. Everything else follows.”

More news: CrunchDAO raises $5 million to scale decentralized AI research

Rapid growth and institutional adoption

Last month alone, Grass reported 8.5 million monthly active users and currently partners with about 20 companies, including non-profits and academic institutions.

The company’s momentum reflects growing interest in native encrypted data networks. Projects that use blockchain technology to distribute infrastructure in the real world, a sector often referred to as DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks).

Grass’s design allows data providers and consumers to interact transparently, with the Grass organization acting as the contractual entity that manages revenue and ensures payments flow directly into the organization’s accounts.

“All revenues paid by our customers go to the Grass Foundation,” Radonjic emphasized. “The GRASS token is the primary means of accumulating value in everything we do.”

Grass and the future of decentralized artificial intelligence

Grass is located at the intersection of two fast-growing industries, artificial intelligence and decentralized infrastructure. By enabling individuals to contribute and monetize bandwidth, the project is turning a passive connection into an active digital asset.

Its approach could redefine how AI data pipelines are built, shifting control from centralized technology companies to a distributed global network.

As Polychain’s Rosenthal said, “Companies built on distributed systems are proving their ability to outperform centralized Web2 models, and Grass is leading this trend.”