Donut Secures $7 Million in Pre-seed Funding

Announcing Donut: An Innovative Crypto-Native Browser

Donut, an innovative browser built specifically for autonomous agents, announced on May 29 that it has raised $7 million in pre-seed funding. The funding is intended to reimagine how users interact with artificial intelligence (AI) on the decentralized web.

Investments and Support

The funding round was led by Hongshan (formerly Sequoia China), BITKRAFT Ventures, and HackVC. Additional support also came from Sky9 Ventures, Matrix Partners, Makers Fund, Altos Ventures, Orthogonal Ventures, Vessel Ventures, and SonicSVM. These funds will help Donut with product development, talent acquisition, and early community building as it focuses on becoming the primary browsing layer for crypto-native AI agents and users.

Integrating Crypto into Browsing

Donut differentiates itself from traditional browsers by integrating crypto wallets, networks, and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) within a unified, programmable interface. This allows both users and AI agents to discover tokens, place bets, swap assets, and generate returns directly from the browsing environment.

Founder's Vision

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Zhu emphasizes that traditional browsers were not designed for crypto or agents. “We are redesigning the front-end of the web to be hyper-financialized, contextual, and agent-driven,” Zhu said.

Zhu has previously worked on various crypto and frontier technology projects, and co-founded the Solana-based smart contract gaming protocol Mirror World. His new venture reflects a growing awareness that crypto applications will rely more on agentic systems to navigate the complexity and speed of on-chain environments.

Power of Autonomous Agents

Donut’s browser is powered by an in-domain AI model trained specifically for crypto contexts, supported by a swarm of autonomous browser agents. These agents operate via a headless browser engine layered with the CodeAct framework and MCP client, allowing them to parse data, execute transactions, or trigger smart contract interactions at scale.

According to the company, these agents can analyze information, simulate decisions and execute trades, easing users' cognitive load in fast-moving markets.

Technical Leadership

Tim Fan, Chief Scientist at Donut and former AI researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and Meta AI, will serve as technical lead. Fan says, “Our vision is that agents — not humans — will be doing most crypto transactions in the future. We’re building the tools and infrastructure to make that possible.”

Future-oriented and Anticipating Trends

Donut sits at the intersection of several emerging trends: agentic computing, headless execution, embedded finance, and autonomous market participation. Unlike crypto wallets or trading dashboards that function as discrete tools, Donut integrates these components into a real-time execution layer, turning browsing into a constant stream of actionable opportunities.

The company is actively hiring across research, design, and product, including prompt engineers, AI scientists, graphic designers, and community growth leaders. Open positions are listed on Donut’s careers page as the team prepares to scale the product ahead of a broader launch.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Donut and what role does it play in the crypto world?
Donut is a crypto-native browser specifically designed for autonomous agents and users, aiming to optimize interaction with the decentralized web by integrating financial transactions and browsing.

How is Donut different from traditional browsers?
Unlike traditional browsers, which separate content consumption from financial execution, Donut integrates crypto wallets, networks, and decentralized exchanges into a single programmable interface.

What is Donut's vision for the future of crypto transactions?
Donut believes that most crypto transactions in the future will be executed by autonomous agents, meaning that people will need to have less manual interaction with the technology.