- Units Network has raised $10M in a funding round led by Nimbus Capital to accelerate on-chain AI infrastructure.
- With an AI Launchpad and AI Liquidity Manager launching this year, Units is building real utility for next-gen DeFi markets.
Units Network (Units.Network), a Layer-1 blockchain built on the Waves protocol and spearheaded by Sasha Ivanov, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Nimbus Capital — the digital asset division of In On Capital, which manages over $1.3 billion in assets.
The investment marks a significant push into the rapidly expanding frontier of on-chain artificial intelligence, as Units.Network prepares to launch two AI-powered primitives later this year: an AI Launchpad and an AI Liquidity Manager.
The capital injection will be used to expand validator infrastructure, deepen cross-chain liquidity, and accelerate Units.Network’s AI roadmap, which aims to reshape decentralized finance (DeFi) markets with native intelligence-driven capabilities.
“This investment allows us to place practical artificial intelligence at the centre of our ecosystem,” said Units Network Founder, Sasha Ivanov. “The Launchpad lowers barriers for innovators, and the liquidity manager will create fairer and more efficient markets for builders and traders.”
Riding the AI-Blockchain Wave
Analysts estimate the blockchain-AI market is worth $0.7 billion today and is expected to grow to $1.9 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 28%. The broader blockchain technology market is forecasted to rise from $20.1 billion in 2024 to nearly $249 billion by 2029, as enterprise and protocol-layer adoption accelerates.
Nimbus Capital’s Managing Partner, Robert Baker, emphasized their early bet on AI-integrated DeFi infrastructure. “We’ve been tracking the AI–blockchain convergence closely, and Units Network stood out for delivering real onchain utility,” Baker said. “The Launchpad and liquidity manager are foundational rails for next-gen agents and autonomous markets.”
This strategic positioning gives Nimbus a head start in a segment many funds missed during the L2 boom. According to CoinGecko, the market cap of AI-related crypto tokens surged from $2.7 billion to over $26 billion in the past year — outpacing Bitcoin’s growth over the same period.
Units DAO and Ecosystem Incentives
The announcement follows Units Network’s recent rollout of a community-run DAO that introduced performance grants to stimulate developer activity. Projects that attract more than $1 million in total value locked (TVL) are eligible for direct funding, and the newly secured $10 million fund will support these initiatives.
The Launchpad, expected to debut later this year, is designed to enable builders to deploy AI-native crypto applications on-chain with minimal friction. The AI Liquidity Manager, meanwhile, will provide autonomous tools for optimizing market-making and capital efficiency, addressing a critical bottleneck in decentralized trading infrastructure.
Beyond the Hype: A Pragmatic Vision
Unlike many blockchain ventures chasing artificial intelligence narratives, Units Network emphasizes real utility. Built on the established Waves protocol, the ecosystem incorporates modular blockchain architecture, native re-staking, and omnichain interoperability — features aimed at solving persistent problems of scalability and fragmentation across Web3.
At the Future Blockchain Summit event in Dubai last October, speaking to Cointelegraph, Ivanov emphasized the need for native interoperability in blockchain ecosystems: “If you want to transfer tokens from one layer to the other layer‑2, you need centralized bridges. And this is very wrong. …. This problem should be resolved.”
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