YZi Labs Invests in Funes to Create an AI-Powered “Eternal Museum” Preserving Human Civilization

Key Takeaways

• YZi Labs has invested in Funes, a digital heritage platform building the world’s largest open archive of 3D architectural models, advancing its thesis of supporting AI × culture × real-world data infrastructure.
• Funes seeks to preserve the physical world in 3D, using crowd-sourced photogrammetry and computer vision to document, share, and reimagine all human constructions – from temples and towers to homes and ruins – before they fade into history.

YZi Labs has invested in Funes, an AI-powered online museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and curating 3D models of all human constructions. The investment aligns with YZi Labs’ thesis of backing projects that connect cultural heritage, AI, and Web3 infrastructure — transforming real-world data into enduring, interoperable assets for the digital age.

While the human's digital world expands exponentially, centuries of human effort – Temples, towers, ruins, and homes – are decaying. Funes was founded to preserve these disappearing spaces. An eternal museum, Funes collects, preserves, and curates 3D models of all human constructions, using crowd-sourced photogrammetry and computer vision to capture the built environment in unprecedented detail. Much like Wikipedia compiles human knowledge, Funes aims to compile the world’s physical memory – a living archive of everything humanity has constructed.

To date, Funes has digitized nearly 1,000 architectural models, including temples, ruins, monasteries, and modern landmarks, and plans to add over 1,000 new models annually. Each model is paired with multimodal data such as text, imagery, and structural metadata, creating a research-grade dataset for scholars, creators, and technologists. This expanding archive is poised to become the most comprehensive real-world 3D database ever assembled, its cultural and commercial value increasing as AI and digital-preservation technologies advance.

The newly raised capital will support Funes’ three key areas: modeling, to capture comprehensive 3D data of historic and modern architecture worldwide; online experience, to create a seamless, interactive platform for exploring models and metadata; and AI Integration, to merge real-world data with technologies such as 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), Radiance Fields (RF), and Large Language Models (LLMs) for generative, research, and educational use cases.

“Funes has already become the largest online database of real-world 3D architectural models. Looking ahead, the precision, scale, and dimensional richness of the models we collect will continue to grow. Beyond their value for direct viewing and personal collection, Funes will also lay a solid foundation for future commercial applications, especially those that naturally integrate with the emerging paradigms of LLMs and new computer vision technologies.” said Hanyang Wang, Co-founder of Funes.

“When I first met the Funes team, I sensed this was a mission for humanity, and they have the capability to bring it to life. Funes is like a GitHub for the physical world - where users create, store, and share detailed 3D models of culturally important architectures. These digital models preserve architectural heritage while providing a foundation for others to study, modify, and build upon. This crowd-sourced digital museum reimagines how we remember and reinvent the spaces that shape us.” said Dana H., Investment Partner at YZi Labs.

About YZi Labs

YZi Labs manages over $10 billion in assets globally. Our investment philosophy emphasizes impact first—we believe that meaningful returns will naturally follow. We invest in ventures at every stage, prioritizing those with solid fundamentals in Web3, AI, and biotech.

YZi Labs’ portfolio covers over 300 projects from over 25 countries across six continents. More than 65 of YZi Labs’ portfolio companies have gone through our incubation programs. For more information, follow YZi Labs on X.

About Funes

Funes is an online museum preserving humanity’s built heritage through high-fidelity 3D models captured via crowd-sourced photogrammetry and computer vision. With nearly 1,000 structures already digitized and more added each year, it is creating a durable, ever-expanding archive that bridges archaeology, engineering, and AI. Inspired by Borges’ vision of infinite memory, Funes is the Eternal Museum – ensuring the world’s physical legacy remains accessible and alive for generations to come.

Disclaimer:The information provided in this article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, endorsement, analysis, or recommendations with respect to any financial instruments, investments, or issuers. This article may contain forward-looking statements which are by nature subject to risks and uncertainties. Investment in cryptocurrency and DeFi projects involves substantial risk, including the risk of complete loss. This article does not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation, or specific needs of any particular person and each individual is urged to consult their legal and financial advisors before making any investment decisions.