Outlier Ventures becomes strategic investor in Ocean Protocol

Outlier becomes strategic partner to support Ocean in building Decentralized Data Exchange Protocol to Unlock Data for AI

Leading blockchain and Web 3.0 venture capital firm Outlier Ventures has today announced it has become strategic partner and investor in Ocean Protocol, the decentralised data exchange in development with the mission to unlock the power of data for AI.

Ocean Protocol is a decentralized data exchange protocol that lets people share and monetize data while guaranteeing control, auditability, transparency and compliance to all actors involved. The protocol provides the underlying technical foundation that data marketplaces need to connect data providers with data consumers in a trusted environment. It nurtures a data ecosystem and community.

Outlier Ventures has made a significant investment in the Ocean pre-sale, and will use its platform of internal expertise and partner network of corporate and academic institutions to support the development of the protocol and its developer ecosystem.

Jamie Burke, CEO, Outlier Ventures stated: “We have known and respected Trent and the team for many years and the work they have done at Ascribe, BigchainDB and IPDB. We are proud to join them in this next step in their commitment to building the critical infrastructure for the next stage of the internet. Not only are the team highly credible, Ocean is yet another European initiative that speaks directly to Outlier Ventures’ ‘Convergence Thesis’; this time combining decentralised ledger technologies with AI. Where Sovrin allowed for identity of ‘things’ and IOTA provided the infrastructure for securing IoT devices and their data, Ocean Protocol provides the market for individuals and organisations to share that data with artificial intelligence and be compensated. It is no coincidence we see a very complimentary fit between the all three of these and the rest of our growing portfolio.”   

As Trent McConaghy, Founder of Ocean Protocol states: “We’ve been collaborating with Outlier Ventures extensively in the past year and I’m very pleased that they’ve placed their confidence into the team to deliver on an obvious need to unlock the world’s data.”

McConaghy continues: “Because data is quickly becoming the world’s most valuable resource, creating ubiquitous access to this resource in a controlled manner is critical to prevent undesired behaviour. The Ocean Protocol team believes in the power of data, and the ability of individuals to decide how it should be used. Consequently, we are creating a data ecosystem that will incentivize all actors to participate and benefit from their data use. Ocean Protocol will unlock data from their silos for the common good.”