Unicity Labs, a company dedicated to developing protocols for the agentic autonomous internet, has successfully secured $3 million in seed funding. This investment round was led by Blockchange Ventures, with additional participation from Tawasal, a prominent communications super app in the Middle East, and Outlier Ventures, a notable early-stage investor in Web3.
The funding arrives at a pivotal moment as autonomous AI agents, which are software entities capable of independently finding services, negotiating terms, and executing transactions, transition from theoretical concepts to active economic participants. The global market for agentic AI is anticipated to surpass $100 billion by 2032.
Central to Unicity Labs” strategy is the development of the Unicity Protocol. This protocol offers a peer-to-peer cryptographic framework that empowers autonomous AI agents to identify services, validate counterparties, and conduct transactions at machine speed, eliminating the need for intermediaries or shared ledgers.
The team at Unicity Labs, which previously founded and exited the cybersecurity firm Guardtime, comprises experts holding PhDs in distributed systems, cryptography, and machine learning. To further enhance governance and community engagement, the company has established the Unicity Foundation in Switzerland.
As AI agents gain greater autonomy, the demand for infrastructure that allows them to discover services, negotiate, and transact without human intervention will grow. Current systems force a difficult choice: either centralize operations through large tech companies, which compromises trustlessness, or utilize traditional blockchains that face scalability issues when numerous agents attempt to transact simultaneously.
Mike Gault, CEO of Unicity Labs, remarked, “Satoshi”s whitepaper was titled “Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash.” Seventeen years later, we still don”t have true peer-to-peer or electronic cash. Every transaction still routes through shared ledgers, introducing unnecessary bottlenecks. Unicity changes that. We”re not building another marketplace or trading platform. We”re building the infrastructure beneath them.” He emphasized that Unicity will enable agents to connect and settle transactions directly and seamlessly.
Matt Immerso, General Partner at Blockchange Ventures, elaborated on the significance of this innovation: “The shared-ledger model that defined the last decade was designed before the AI-driven world we are now entering. Unicity didn”t just patch the old system; they built its successor.” This new approach separates transaction validation from execution, allowing the network to merely confirm the uniqueness of an asset, which significantly enhances speed, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.
As a strategic investor, Tawasal”s CEO, Eric Leandri, highlighted the transformative potential of this shift: “In an agentic economy, merchants don”t market to people. They sell to agents—agents that have been instructed about what their users want and are ready to transact.” This infrastructure represents a fundamental change in the economics of commerce.
Dimitrios Chatzianagnostou, CIO of Outlier Ventures, underscored the architectural shift proposed by Unicity: “The industry has spent a decade optimizing shared ledgers. Unicity asked a different question entirely: what if agents don”t need a shared ledger at all?” This innovative framework is key to enabling large-scale commerce between agents.
For more detailed insights, the Unicity whitepaper is available for review.
Mike Gault and Matt Immerso are available for interviews to discuss this groundbreaking initiative further.
About Unicity Labs: Unicity Labs is at the forefront of constructing the infrastructure for the autonomous agentic internet. The Unicity Protocol replaces traditional shared ledgers with peer-to-peer cryptographic objects, allowing AI agents to autonomously discover, transact, and settle. Founded by seasoned experts in blockchain and cryptography, Unicity is supported by Blockchange Ventures, Outlier Ventures, and Tawasal.
About Blockchange Ventures: Based in New York, Blockchange Ventures invests exclusively in early-stage blockchain companies, protocols, and applications, supporting visionary founders who are building the decentralized economy.
About Tawasal: Tawasal SuperApp is a secure messaging and digital lifestyle platform from the UAE, catering to over five million users in the Middle East. Launched in 2019, Tawasal emphasizes data sovereignty and regional infrastructure development.
About Outlier Ventures: Founded in 2014, Outlier Ventures is recognized as a leading early-stage investor in Web3, boasting a portfolio of over 370 global investments and facilitating the raising of $1 billion in seed funding.
