Yupp, a new AI startup merging artificial intelligence benchmarking with cryptocurrency incentives, has exited stealth with a $33 million seed round led by A16z Crypto. The round also included Coinbase Ventures and high-profile angel investors such as Google’s Jeff Dean, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and Pinterest’s Evan Sharp.
Yupp’s platform allows users to compare answers from over 500 AI models—including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and others—and earn crypto or fiat rewards for rating their quality. Payments are processed through Stripe, PayPal, or stablecoins on Base and Solana blockchains.
“By combining AI feedback with Web3 infrastructure, we’re creating a more transparent and participatory way to measure model performance,” said co-founder and CEO Pankaj Gupta.
The company also launched its VIBE Score (Vibe Intelligence Benchmark), a crowdsourced leaderboard that ranks AI models based on user feedback, factoring in accuracy, speed, latency, and cost.
With strong financial backing and growing interest in the AI-crypto crossover, Yupp aims to shape a new standard for open, community-driven model evaluation.
