Sam Altman’s World raises $135M from Andreessen, Bain, to expand network

Update (May 23 at 10:57 pm UTC): This article has been updated to clarify information regarding World’s operations in Brazil and Indonesia and to include comments from the company.

World, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s digital identification project, raised $135 million from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto, the company said in an announcement.

The capital will be used to expand World’s network of iris-scanning orbs and infrastructure in the United States, where the company said in April it would operate in six cities, and increase coverage around the globe, according to the announcement.

More than 12.5 million individuals in over 160 jurisdictions have been issued a World ID, the company said.

The project, which collects biometric data from individuals to establish “proof of personhood,” faces regulatory headwinds in several countries. Critics of the project say that offering financial incentives for biometric data violates informed consent, sparking a debate about the ethics of centralized digital ID systems and data privacy.

The global regulatory issues prompted World to review its business model in March 2024 to transfer data ownership to users.

Related: Alarm bells ring in US over OpenAI’s crypto project World

Scrutiny of Worldcoin continues

In January, Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) ordered the company to stop offering financial compensation for biometric data collection in the country, citing concerns regarding the violation of informed consent.

The ANPD upheld the decision to ban World’s crypto payments in March, imposing a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian reais ($8,851) for noncompliance.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital (Komdigi), a data and communication watchdog, suspended World’s business license on May 4 after accusing some of the company’s subsidiaries of failing to register as digital asset service providers under the Electronic System Operator Certificate Registration (TDPSE) framework.

Komdigi has launched an investigation into the project and will meet with representatives from the subsidiaries following the suspension to clarify the matter.

In a statement to Cointelegraph, the company said it “voluntarily paused its proof of human verification services in Indonesia” before the government’s decision, adding that it is currently “seeking clarification on the terms of the relevant licenses and permits.”

The setbacks in both countries follow a December 2024 order from the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA), a German data protection regulator, demanding that World adhere to the European Union’s data protection standards by allowing individuals the option to easily delete their biometric data from the network.

“Data anonymization, not just data deletion, is essential for enabling people to verify themselves as human online while remaining completely private. Without a clear definition around anonymization, however, we lose perhaps our most powerful tool in the fight to protect privacy in the age of AI,” said Damien Kieran, chief legal and privacy officer at Tools For Humanity, the project’s developer.

Magazine: Worldcoin fined again! Crypto store clerk runs off with $500K cash: Asia Express