OpenRouter Raises $40 Million

OpenRouter, an AI infrastructure startup co-founded by former OpenSea Chief Technology Officer Alex Atallah, has raised $40 million in seed and Series A funding. The financing was led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital and a number of angel investors. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the funding round brings the company's valuation to $500 million.

OpenRouter Raises $40 Million

The company, founded in 2023, operates a large language model (LLM) aggregator platform. It provides developers with access to a wide selection of models from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta through a single application programming interface. The platform automatically routes user prompts to the most appropriate model based on a combination of cost, speed, accuracy, and privacy requirements. This routing approach is designed to help developers manage growing inference costs and navigate an increasingly fragmented AI landscape.

OpenRouter Raises $40 Million

Focus on Infrastructure and Developer Experience

OpenRouter's service model is based on a credit system that allows developers to pay for LLM inferences. The company charges a small fee per request. By simplifying model access and optimization, the platform aims to replace internal solutions that many businesses currently maintain for managing multiple AI models.

In a statement, OpenRouter CEO Alex Atallah noted that inference costs are growing quickly across industries, especially for companies that use several different models in their workflows. He said that while many organizations have developed in-house gateways to handle this complexity, there is increasing demand for external solutions that can provide greater reliability and ease of use. Atallah added that the latest funding will support continued product development and help the company meet enterprise expectations around performance, uptime, and data privacy.

OpenRouter Raises $40 Million

Early Growth and Industry Partnerships

Since its launch, OpenRouter has scaled rapidly. The company reports that annualized inference spend on its platform grew from $10 million in late 2024 to over $100 million. More than one million developers have used its API to date. OpenRouter's customer base includes early-stage startups as well as larger enterprises, and its infrastructure is integrated with platforms like Microsoft VSCode, Zapier, and Cloudflare.

OpenRouter has also established working relationships with major AI labs. The company has been among the first to offer access to new models, including OpenAI’s GPT-4.1. Tabarak Khan, a representative from OpenAI’s Technical Success team, highlighted OpenRouter’s contributions, stating that the platform’s active developer community has played a role in providing feedback that supports ongoing improvements in model performance.

OpenRouter Raises $40 Million

Background of the Founders

Alex Atallah co-founded OpenSea in 2018 alongside CEO Devin Finzer and served as its Chief Technology Officer during the company’s early growth. He stepped down from the NFT marketplace in mid-2022, a time that coincided with a broader decline in web3 market activity. Atallah remained on OpenSea’s board following his departure. His new venture, OpenRouter, was co-founded with Louis Vichy and reflects a shift in focus from crypto infrastructure to artificial intelligence.

The funding round provides OpenRouter with additional capital to strengthen its position as a model routing provider in the AI ecosystem. The company continues to invest in its platform with the aim of supporting both developers and organizations navigating the growing demand for LLM integrations.