Donut Labs, a New York City-based startup, has closed a $7 million pre-seed funding round led by HongShan Capital Group, with participation from BitKraft, HackVC, and Matrix Partners. The company is building an agentic browser designed to simplify cryptocurrency transactions, aiming to hyper-financialize the internet's front-end for AI agents.
Founded by Chris Zhu, a graduate of NYU Stern School of Business and former product strategy manager at ByteDance, Donut Labs is assembling a team from Meta AI, Tencent, and New York University. The startup's core innovation is the CodeAct framework, which uses executable Python code to empower large language model-based agents. Combined with a MCP client and headless browser, this technology allows users to perform crypto actions like trading and yield earning without leaving a single page.
The company plans to integrate a wallet, network, and decentralized exchange into its interface, offering a comprehensive tool for crypto enthusiasts. This approach challenges the traditional browser model, which has remained largely unchanged for decades. By rearchitecting internet navigation for financial interactions, Donut Labs could make advanced crypto tools more accessible to a broader audience.
The funding round, led by HongShan Capital Group, signals strong investor confidence in the potential of agentic interfaces for finance. As the crypto space continues to evolve, Donut Labs' browser could streamline user experiences and drive adoption by reducing friction in transactions. The startup's focus on integrating decentralized tools into a single interface may set a new standard for how individuals and AI agents interact with digital assets.
