Why We Invested in Sahara AI, the AI Platform Building a Collaborative AI Economy

TLDR

• Sahara Labs is building a decentralized AI blockchain platform for an open, equitable, and collaborative economy.
• By addressing limitation from centralized AI technology, Sahara Labs hopes to ensure transparency, data and model sovereignty, and fair compensation for all participants.  
• The platform provides a comprehensive suite of real-world AI tools, supported by a robust infrastructure that prioritizes usability and user experience, delivering immediate practical value.
• Sahara Labs aims to bring more collaboration to the AI economy to foster a more integrated ecosystem where innovation flourishes.
• Mirana is proud to announce a strategic investment in Sahara Labs as it works to build a more open AI economy.

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How Sahara Labs Solves Issues in the Current AI Landscape

Innovation in the AI space is accelerating at rapid speed. However, the sector is currently dominated by a small number of Big Tech behemoths. This centralization of power and lack of transparency can lead to biased algorithms, privacy violations, and unequal access to AI's benefits..

The world’s most powerful tech companies monetize public and personal data without compensating their users. These platforms have established monopolistic control of the Internet, using sophisticated algorithms to influence their users’ behavior.

The advent of AI poses significant concerns surrounding how the most powerful platforms could exploit user data. Sahara Labs addresses these concerns by decentralizing the core aspects of AI development and deployment. In doing so, the project is shifting power dynamics in the AI economy.

In this article, we look into Sahara Labs’ unique value proposition and explain why Mirana is backing the project’s mission to revolutionize the AI economy.

Why Sahara Labs Is Set to Advance the AI Economy

Mirana believes in Sahara Labs and its vision to build a more open AI economy. We invested in the project’s recent $43M raise alongside a host of crypto’s leading VC firms for the following reasons:

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• Sahara Labs is building a multi-purpose solution to usher in a collaborative AI economy.
  • Sahara Labs boasts a comprehensive suite of AI tools that cater to both developers and non-technical users. These tools include an SDK, API, and code-free platforms. The platform offers robust infrastructure that optimizes for usability and accessibility for a wide target audience.
  • Sahara Labs lets developers and innovators build in a seamless manner, bringing more collaboration to the economy. Its unified platform ensures data and model sovereignty, and fair compensation, allowing users to monetize their innovations as part of a more equitable ecosystem.
• Sahara Labs adopts a scalable and unified architecture.
  • Sahara Labs’ platform adopts a scalable architecture that can be unbundled into four layers: the Transaction Layer, the Data Layer, the Execution Layer, the and Application Layer.
    • The Transaction Layer features the Sahara Blockchain, a Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure that manages provenance, access control, attribution and other AI-related transactions across the AI lifecycle.
    • The Data Layer provides abstraction and protocols for data storage, access and transfer, integrating both on-chain and off-chain components to provide seamless data management across the AI lifecycle.
    • The Execution Layer offers essential off-chain infrastructure to support AI utility, covering a full spectrum of AI functionalities. It provides versatile AI computation protocols and dynamically allocates computational resources for optimal performance.
    • The Application Layer acts as the user interface and the major interaction point for the Sahara AI platform. It provides native toolkits for users to achieve AI utility.
• Sahara Labs has established a strong market position with meaningful early traction.
  • Sahara Labs has established strategic partnerships with industry leaders for its Sahara Agents and Sahara Data solutions with multi-million contractual revenue in-place. This approach sets the project apart from other decentralized AI protocols.
  • Sahara Labs has achieved early traction, proving that it is creating real value. Sahara Labs has welcomed over 35 paying clients from the enterprise sector with upcoming plans to expand to retail users. This early success illustrates Sahara Labs’ ability to meet diverse customer needs, capture market share, and scale effectively.
• Sahara Labs has an exceptional team with strong backing.
  • Sahara Labs’ co-founders Sean Ren and Tyler Zhou boast expertise in both AI and blockchain. Ren is recognized as one of AI’s most influential figures, having won awards like the Samsung AI Researcher of the Year in 2023. Zhou, meanwhile, has gained valuable blockchain experience from his work leading investments at Binance Labs. Ren and Zhou’s combined accomplishments offer Sahara Labs visionary leadership.
  • The team also has support from a wide range of major industry figures and institutions, including the likes ofMotherson Group, Antrhopic, Midjourney, Together AI, and Stanford. This backing lends Sahara Labs credibility and a wealth of perspectives and resources to build its strategic initiatives.

How Mirana is supporting Sahara Labs’ vision

Mirana Ventures is dedicated to supporting Sahara Labs as it builds towards a more open AI economy. Mirana will primarily offer strategic guidance to help Sahara Labs achieve market penetration, especially in APAC regions. Mirana will also foster collaborations across Mantle’s AI ecosystem. Our commitment to Sahara Labs is driven by a shared vision to transform the AI landscape through decentralization and innovation.

Our investment in Sahara Labs forms part of a strategic alignment to promote transparency, collaboration, and fairness in the AI industry. Sahara Labs is leading AI towards a more equitable future and we are excited to join the team on its journey.

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