LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M | TechCrunch
May 21, 2025 - techcrunch.com
LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project used by major AI labs to test and market their AI models, has raised $100 million in a seed funding round, valuing the organization at $600 million. The funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins. Founded in 2023 and primarily run by UC Berkeley-affiliated researchers, LM Arena has partnered with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to provide flagship models for community evaluation.
Previously funded through grants and donations from entities such as Google’s Kaggle, a16z, and Together AI, LM Arena has faced accusations of enabling top AI labs to manipulate its leaderboard, which it has denied. Despite these controversies, the organization has become a significant focus in the AI industry, providing a platform for evaluating AI models.
Key takeaways:
LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project for AI models, raised $100 million in seed funding, valuing it at $600 million.
The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.
Founded in 2023, LM Arena collaborates with major AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to evaluate AI models.
LM Arena has faced accusations of helping AI labs manipulate its leaderboard, which it has denied.
