ZeruAI, a startup building trust infrastructure for decentralized and AI-driven economies, has raised a pre-seed round with participation from Notalone Ventures, as it expands from onchain credit scoring into a broader behavioral intelligence layer for machine economies.

Founded in 2024, ZeruAI started with a simple premise: crypto has transparent data, but no native way to interpret trust. Wallets remain pseudonymous, capital is overcollateralized, and incentives are distributed blindly. ZeruAI’s answer is zScore—a real-time, behavior-based reputation system that turns raw onchain activity into a usable measure of trust.

Today, that system is evolving into something bigger: a programmable trust layer not just for users, but for autonomous agents transacting onchain.

From raw data to programmable trust

At its core, ZeruAI operates a three-layer behavioral intelligence stack. It continuously ingests multi-chain transaction data across hundreds of millions of wallets, transforms that activity into structured behavioral features, and applies machine learning models to infer reliability, risk, and economic behavior.

The output is exposed through composable primitives:

• zScore (public good) — a universal reputation score (0–1000) derived from wallet behavior, designed to be openly accessible and verifiable. It functions as an onchain credit layer and can be queried via APIs or surfaced publicly, positioning it as shared infrastructure rather than a closed system.
• Zaps (zaps.wtf) — a growth and incentive engine that rewards users based on real economic activity such as trading, liquidity provision, and governance participation, filtering out low-quality or Sybil behavior.
• AgentScan (agentscan.tech) — a discovery and reputation layer for AI agents, allowing them to register, build behavioral histories, and be evaluated before other agents or users transact with them.

Unlike traditional credit systems or Web3 analytics dashboards, ZeruAI is designed as infrastructure—an intelligence layer that sits between raw blockchain data and economic decision-making.
 

Why this matters now

The timing aligns with three converging shifts: the growth of onchain capital markets, the rise of incentive-driven ecosystems, and the emergence of autonomous AI agents that can hold wallets and transact independently.

While DeFi has scaled, it still relies heavily on overcollateralization due to the absence of reliable behavioral risk models. ZeruAI’s system instead evaluates patterns like repayment history, capital efficiency, and interaction consistency—allowing protocols to price risk dynamically rather than rely on static collateral ratios.

Early deployments show practical impact. Protocols using zScore for airdrop filtering and incentive allocation have reduced Sybil participation and token leakage, while improving retention of high-quality users.

The company’s APIs are already generating revenue through data filtration and underwriting use cases, including pilots for undercollateralized lending across Europe and Asia.

From credit layer to machine economy primitive

ZeruAI’s longer-term bet is that behavior—not identity—becomes the primary primitive for coordination in digital economies. That shift becomes critical as AI agents begin to act as economic participants.

With AgentScan, ZeruAI is extending its scoring model beyond humans to autonomous systems—creating a reputation layer where agents can be discovered, evaluated, and trusted based on execution history and behavior, not credentials.

About Notalone Ventures

Notalone Ventures is an early-stage venture firm backing founders building at the intersection of crypto, AI, and next-generation internet infrastructure. The firm focuses on high-conviction, pre-seed and seed investments, partnering closely with builders to help shape product, distribution, and network effects from day one.

Notalone Ventures is known for supporting teams that are rethinking core primitives of digital economies—from financial infrastructure to coordination layers—often before these markets reach mainstream attention. Its portfolio reflects a thesis-driven approach toward decentralized systems, agent-driven economies, and composable internet architecture.

Backers and next steps

Prior to this round, ZeruAI raised an angel round from founders across the Web3 ecosystem, including Router Protocol, Covalent, and Jokerace, and secured grants from the Eigen Foundation.