Surf, an AI intelligence platform focused on digital assets, has raised $15 million in funding led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group. The San Francisco-based company said the new capital will be used to develop Surf 2.0 and expand its enterprise offering as demand rises among crypto traders, researchers, and investors for faster and more reliable market intelligence.
Surf is building domain-specific AI models for digital asset analysis, pairing proprietary modeling with industry data to produce answers and research outputs that it says are more accurate than those from general-purpose systems for crypto use cases. The company pointed to performance on CAIA, a benchmark intended to test whether an AI model can complete the work of a junior human analyst, saying Surf 1.0 outperformed competitors by up to four times.
The platform uses a multi-agent architecture that evaluates social sentiment, on-chain activity, and token and market behavior, then delivers insights through a chat interface meant to reduce manual research. Surf said it launched in July and has seen early adoption and growth, including millions in annual recurring revenue, more than 1 million research reports generated, 50% month-over-month growth, and usage by 80% of top exchanges and research firms.
With the new funding, Surf said Surf 2.0 will add a more advanced model, expanded proprietary datasets, and new agents capable of handling multi-step workflows typically performed by experienced analysts. The company also said it will launch Surf Enterprise with enhanced security controls, dedicated infrastructure, SOC 2 compliance, and data privacy capabilities to meet institutional requirements.
KEY QUOTES:
“Surf is an exceptional product. I use it daily, and increasingly find myself spending more time on Surf than on Perplexity. When people make financial decisions, they want information they can trust. Generic AI tools aren’t built for that. We’re building Surf to give people something they can rely on, especially in a market that moves as quickly as crypto.”
Ryan Li, Co-founder and CEO of Surf
“Digital asset research has always required a level of context and detail that general LLMs don’t handle well. Surf is one of the first teams to take that seriously, and the traction they’ve shown tells us the market has been waiting for a tool like this.”
Nihal Maunder, Partner at Pantera Capital
