With 25M users, Bluesky gets $1M funding to take on social media and AI

Successful technology companies follow a common pattern: from a product to a platform where other startups build businesses on top of theirs. To encourage that, they often launch a fund. This time, someone launched a fund to help Bluesky’s fast-growing website, which now boasts 25 million users.

On Wednesday open source and Python big wig Peter Wang announced this fund, called Skyseed, with an initial war chest of $1 million. Bluesky is a decentralized social app from Jack Dorsey (although Dorsey left the Bluesky board in May). It was launched five years ago and has taken over as an alternative to Elon Musk’s X.

This fund will provide grants to those who build on Bluesky’s open source AT Protocol. It is looking for technologies such as data privacy controls for AI use, and parent/child apps and local communities.

Correction: Bluesky says the fund is independent of the company. This updated article reflects that information.