Bitstarter Kicks Off First Crowdfunding Platform for Bittensor With Livestream Investment Round
London, UK, November 21st, 2025, Chainwire
Bitstarter.ai, the first crowdfunding platform designed for AI startups building on decentralized infrastructure, just launched — giving emerging founders direct access to capital, mentorship, and compute power on the Bittensor network. Designed to solve the critical funding, assurance, and access challenges that prevent decentralized AI start-ups from securing their place on the protocol – and the compute they need to compete against centralized giants.
The platform enables AI startups to raise capital directly from the Bittensor community through a secure, non-custodial smart contract system, while receiving essential mentorship from a panel of experts – including Bittensor’s founder, Jacob Steeves.
On Friday, November 21, from 5 to 7 pm UK time, Bitstarter will host its first ever livestream, allowing new startups to make pitches for funding publicly and in real-time. The first startup slated to make its pitch is AlphaCore who is designing AI agents for dev-ops.
The Missing Piece for a Decentralized AI Ecosystem
While decentralized compute networks promise an alternative pathway for AI entrepreneurs , they lack the structured, cross-disciplinary support systems that startups need to grow, scale, and thrive. For builders, accessing the Bittensor network has been notoriously difficult, requiring significant capital and navigating a complex maze of technical channels, with no clear route forward..
“Bittensor is the largest decentralized AI network, but it has no on-ramp for builders. We have the hardware, and an open protocol, but these are buried in GitHub repositories and siloed Discord channels – blocking top AI start-ups from accessing Bittensor’s brilliance” ,” said Chris Zacharia, Bitstarter’s founder. “Bitstarter is built to be that on-ramp – but by bringing together the best in Bittensor, it can be so much more: incubator, accelerator, and launchpad, all in one. Anyone, anywhere, can submit their vision – and get expert consultation, rapid upskilling, and a platform to pitch their project – and win funding.”
How Bitstarter Builds a Better Ecosystem
Bitstarter provides a transparent, three-step process:
- Expert assessment, early on: Startups submit proposals to a multidisciplinary advisory panel featuring seasoned experts from tech, venture capital, and the Bittensor core team, ensuring only the most promising projects advance.
- Community-powered funding: Once approved, projects are featured on the Bitstarter platform, where the community of TAO holders can explore their project, comment or ask questions, and pledge tokens to fund their raises. Funds are held securely in a smart contract, built into the Bittensor substrate, and are only released if the funding goal is met.
- Aligned Incentives: In return for their pledge, backers receive the new project’s token at a preferential pre-launch rate. This gives startups the capital they need while providing the community early access to innovative projects, creating a virtuous cycle of growth. Backers only receive their token if the project they pledge to achieves their raise and secures a subnet slot – creating a movement of advocates, all driving for collective success.
Bitstarter transforms decentralized AI from theory to action — offering a launchpad for the next wave of innovation, built by the community, for the community.
Creating a Virtuous Cycle for Decentralized AI
By systematically solving the funding and access problem, Bitstarter enables a future where anyone with a groundbreaking AI idea can access the resources and community support to build it. This moves decentralized AI from a theoretical alternative into a practical, competitive ecosystem.
“Whether AI or not, start-ups success depends on one critical pivot: how well they adapt to their surrounding ecosystem – of builders, businesses, and backers alike” added Zacharia. “Bitstarter brings end-to-end integrated support on-chain. This is how we accelerate aspiring AI visions into realized, real-world innovation – capable of competing with the biggest, while maintaining the open-source, decentralized principles that are best for all.”
The first projects are scheduled to launch on the Bitstarter platform immediately, spanning start-ups across robotics, automated trading, and biometrics, including decentralized consciousness platform Loosh AI.
“Humanoid robotics is deeply in the uncanny valley right now. We need AI agents that can understand people, their feelings, and their needs. To solve this problem, Loosh’s AI system is designed to evaluate across multiple moral systems, so that an LLM can make an ethical decision.” said Chris Sorel, Co-founder & CTO of Loosh AI. “Our vision is of a future where robots have human personality, friendliness, and ultimately heart.”
About Bitstarter
Bitstarter is the first crowdfunding platform, incubator, and accelerator for decentralized AI startups building on the Bittensor network. Founded in 2025 and based in London, Bitstarter’s mission is to onboard the next generation of AI innovation by providing essential funding, mentorship, and access. For more information, users can visit [bitstarter.ai].
Users can Join Livestream Here Friday, 21st November at 17:00 GMT/ 12:00 EST / 9:00 PST