World, the online verification startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a cryptocurrency sale to strategic investors.
Participating investors participated in a 12-month lockup sale of the World’s token, WLD. Lock-up periods prevent asset buyers from selling or trading their tokens for a set period of time. The one-year lock-in demonstrates investors’ “long-term commitment to of the world continued growth and utility,” the company said Friday in a press release.
The money will go to the World Foundation, an exempt limited guarantee based in the Cayman Islands, created to manage World’s network expansion.
The lead buyer of the sale is Pantera Capital, a venture capital firm focused on digital assets. Other companies participating in the sale included Eightco Holdings, Bain Capital Crypto, Susquehanna Crypto and Selini Capital.
The World project is powered by Tools for Humanity, a San Francisco-based startup led by CEO and co-founder Alex Blania. Altman is the company’s other co-founder.
World is an unusual business that revolves around online verification and sells access to what it calls “proof-of-human” tools. The idea is that as bots and artificial intelligence create much of the content on the internet, it will become increasingly important to know who is truly human and who is not. The World’s mission is to publicize its World ID, an anonymous digital identifier that verifies whether a human — not a bot or AI agent — is behind a particular account.
To receive a verified World ID (the highest level of verification in the World’s system), users must have their eyes scanned by an Orb, a metal ball that turns a user’s iris into a distinct cryptographic identifier. World’s Orbs are located in its offices and have also been deployed in partner stores around the world.
The project began as a more overt crypto-based experiment called “Worldcoin” – the same name the crypto asset involved in the recent sale. Users can trade or hold the token through World’s app, which also acts as a custodial wallet. The company later renamed itself World amid a wider backlash against the crypto industry.
In April, the project launched a new version of its app and announced partnerships with companies including Tinder and Ticketmaster. Yet despite its global ambitions, World has struggled to scale its operations or get consumers to care much about its mission. In June, TFH carried out a round of layoffs.
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