UAE-headquartered blockchain-based AI start-up Sentient Labs has secured $85 million in seed funding.

The investment round has been co-led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures.

The round also drew participation from Arrington Capital, Canonical, Dao5, Delphi, Dispersion, Ethereal, Folius, Foresight, Hack VC, Hashkey, Hypersphere, IDG, Mirana, Nomad, Primitive Ventures, Protagonist, Republic, Robot Ventures, Sky9, Spartan, Symbolic Capital and Topology, among others.

The start-up, which was established only this year, intends to use the fresh capital to develop its open source AI platform and recruit AI research and blockchain engineering experts.

It also looks to partner with some industry players and academic institutions.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) seban.scaria@lseg.com