Crunch Lab
Category: AI Infrastructure
A decentralized AI network that connects machine learning engineers with enterprise data challenges. Crunch Lab was founded in 2021. The company is led by Jean Herelle. Based in New York, USA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $10 million. Latest round: Strategic Funding Round. Key investors include Galaxy Ventures, Road Capital, Multicoin Capital, VanEck.
- Founded
- 2021
- Headquarters
- New York, USA
- Team size
- 11-50
- Total funding
- $10 million
Value proposition
Provides enterprises with access to a global network of over 10,000 machine learning engineers to solve complex data challenges through a decentralized, competition-based model.
Products and solutions
Decentralized AI platform (CrunchDAO), Bittensor subnet mining integration
Unique value
Utilizes a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure to crowdsource AI and machine learning solutions from a global talent pool.
Target customer
Enterprises, particularly in the finance and biomedical sectors.
Industries served
Finance, Biomedical research
Technology advantage
A decentralized network of over 10,000 machine learning engineers, allowing for a scalable and cost-effective way to develop production-grade AI models for enterprises. This model avoids the traditional high costs and difficulties of hiring top AI talent.
How they differentiate
Crunch Lab differentiates itself by creating a decentralized 'intelligence layer' that connects its vast network of ML engineers directly with enterprise data challenges, particularly in the financial sector. Unlike traditional in-house AI teams, Crunch Lab leverages a competitive, crowdsourced model through its CrunchDAO platform, where data scientists compete to build the best models. The use of a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) structure and its own tokenomics is a key distinction from more centralized competitors.
Main competitors
Numerai, Quantiacs, QuantConnect
Key partnerships
Selected for the Solana Incubator's second cohort, and has contributed to research breakthroughs at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology., Integrated with Bittensor decentralized AI network for subnet mining (January 2026).
Notable customers
While specific names are not public, the company has announced it is in the prototyping phase with two new financial institutions.
Major milestones
Successfully raised a $3.5 million seed round in August 2024., Secured an additional $5 million in a strategic funding round in October 2025., Grown its decentralized community to over 11,000 machine learning engineers., Launched Bittensor decentralized AI mining integration in January 2026.
Growth metrics
The company has built a decentralized network of over 11,000 machine learning engineers, which includes 1,200 PhDs.
Market positioning
Crunch Lab is positioned as a specialized, decentralized AI solution for the financial industry. It targets enterprises looking to outsource complex machine learning problems to a global talent pool without the overhead of hiring and managing a large internal team. They operate as a niche player in the broader AI/ML platform market, with a strong focus on quantitative finance.
Geographic focus
The company is headquartered in New York, USA, but its network of data scientists is global. The primary focus for enterprise customers is on major financial hubs, starting with the United States.
Patents and IP
Not publicly available
About Jean Herelle
Founder and CEO at Crunch Lab, a core contributor to CrunchDAO. Previously worked in quantitative trading at Millennium and Morgan Stanley.
Official website: https://crunchdao.com/