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Surf

Category: AI in Fintech

An AI-powered intelligence platform purpose-built for the crypto industry to provide real-time, hallucination-free research, market analysis, and on-chain execution. Surf was founded in 2024. The company is led by Ryan Li. Based in Palo Alto, USA. Team size: 10-50. Total funding raised: $15M. Latest round: Series A (Dec 2025). Key investors include Pantera Capital (Lead); Coinbase Ventures; Digital Currency Group (DCG).

Founded
2024
Headquarters
Palo Alto, USA
Team size
10-50
Total funding
$15M

Value proposition

Eliminates AI hallucinations in financial contexts by grounding its proprietary model in real-time blockchain data and verified social feeds, offering 4x better performance on crypto tasks than general-purpose LLMs.

Products and solutions

["Surf Search (AI-powered crypto search engine)","Surf Pro (Premium subscription for advanced research and higher limits)","Surf Browser Extension (Real-time insights while browsing crypto sites)","Surf API (Developer access to unified on-chain and social sentiment data)","Surf Enterprise (Institutional-grade infrastructure with enhanced security)","Surf 2.0 (Upcoming advanced model with multi-step analytical agents)"]

Unique value

Often described as the 'Perplexity for Crypto,' it uses a domain-specific multi-agent setup to analyze social sentiment, on-chain activity, and market behavior simultaneously.

Target customer

Retail crypto traders, institutional investors, financial analysts, and Web3 developers.

Industries served

["Fintech","Blockchain & Cryptocurrency","Artificial Intelligence","Data Analytics"]

Technology advantage

Leverages the 'Cyber AI' proprietary model trained on curated crypto-native datasets and real-time indexing of 100,000+ KOLs and 40+ blockchains. It benefits from deep synergy with the Cyber (formerly CyberConnect) social graph.

How they differentiate

Utilizes a domain-specific 'Cyber AI' model trained on curated crypto datasets, offering 4x better performance on crypto-specific tasks than general LLMs. It integrates real-time indexing of 100,000+ KOLs and 40+ blockchains to eliminate hallucinations in financial contexts.

Main competitors

["Kaito AI","Perplexity AI","Arkham Intelligence"]

Key partnerships

Optimism; EigenLayer; AltLayer

Notable customers

80,000+ users

Major milestones

["Raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Pantera Capital (Dec 2024)","Surpassed 300,000 active users","Achieved millions in ARR","Launched Surf 2.0 featuring multi-step analytical agents"]

Growth metrics

$15M raised (Dec 2025); Millions in ARR; 80K+ users; 50% monthly growth; 1M+ research reports generated; Launched Jul 2025 (invite), public Sep 2025; First social-focused L2 vision

Market positioning

Specialized AI intelligence layer for the crypto ecosystem, often described as the 'Perplexity for Crypto.'

Geographic focus

Global Web3 market with a primary operational focus in North America (Palo Alto, USA).

Patents and IP

No specific public patents disclosed; relies on proprietary datasets and domain-specific model architectures.

About Ryan Li

Ryan Li is a serial entrepreneur with a decade of experience in AI and blockchain. He is the co-founder of Cyber (formerly CyberConnect), a leading Web3 social network. Previously, he served as the CTO of BitTorrent following its acquisition by TRON. He also co-founded DLive, a decentralized live-streaming platform, and Lino Network. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted AI research.

Official website: