Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is aiming to land investments from sovereign funds with its latest fundraising round, coming at a time when OpenAI has seen success.
Worldcoin, the crypto startup founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is looking for a lead investor to carry out its most recent funding round. The company specializes in utilizing eyescan technology to identify individuals.
The startup is currently in talks with well-endowed investors such as sovereign wealth funds to lead a new round of fundraising, according to two sources close to the situation.
One source has reported that the company is looking to raise around $120 million, valuing it at $3 billion which is the same rate as last year. The round will be a combination of equity and token warrants available for sale.
Worldcoin was unable to provide any comments when contacted.
The increased compensation is a result of the astounding success of ChaptGPT, an OpenAI project led by Altman. This natural language interface has been incredibly successful.
According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI had discussions with investors regarding a potential share sale which would place their value at an estimated $29 billion. Additionally, Microsoft is weighing in with an offer of a staggering $10 billion investment.
In 2020, Altman founded Worldcoin alongside his other venture OpenAI. He had previously been the president of an esteemed startup accelerator — Y Combinator.
The startup behind Worldcoin originally wanted their cryptocurrency to become the infrastructure for universal basic income. To authenticate a person’s identity, they use something called Orbs which scans their iris. This has been described by Altman as “proof of personhood” in previous interviews.
Eyeball-scanning technology
Upon unveiling the Orb technology in October 2021, the startup had recently raised $25 million in funds, helping them reach a billion dollar valuation. This fundraise was backed by established names, such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group and many other angel investors including Sam Bankman-Fried — the former CEO of defunct crypto exchange FTX.
Edward Snowden was among the first to criticize the eye-scanning technology because of its potential invasion of privacy.
Altman had earlier clarified that Worldcoin doesn’t store biometric information, nor link it to any individual. Recently, they closed a $100 million financing round from Khosla Ventures and a16z at an estimated $3 billion valuation as reported by The Information.
The startup is aiming to have its token distributed among as many people globally by the mid-year. It has reportedly secured close to 1.2 million sign-ups on its website up till now.
