Surf Raises $15M to Build AI Model Tailored to Crypto Research

Surf, an AI research and intelligence platform focused on digital assets, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group (DCG), the company said in a press release Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based startup said the funds will go toward building Surf 2.0, a new version of its crypto-focused AI model, and expanding its enterprise offering.

The company pitches itself as an alternative to general-purpose large language models (LLMs) by training proprietary systems specifically for digital asset analysis and pairing them with crypto-native datasets.

The platform uses a multi-agent setup that analyzes inputs such as social sentiment, on-chain activity and token and market behavior, delivering outputs through a chat-style interface designed to cut down on manual research.

Surf 2.0 will add a more advanced model, expanded proprietary datasets and new agents designed to execute multi-step workflows that are typically handled by experienced analysts, the company said. Surf Enterprise will include dedicated infrastructure and enhanced security tooling aimed at meeting institutional requirements.

“When people make financial decisions, they want information they can trust. Generic AI tools aren’t built for that,” said Ryan Li, Surf’s co-founder and CEO.

Since launching in July, Surf said it has reached millions in annual recurring revenue, generated more than 1 million research reports, grown 50% month over month, and is used by 80% of top exchanges and research firms.

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