CT Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital agency, announced a new investment of $750,000 into Yuma Asset Management, a new company created and owned by Stamford-based Digital Currency Group, a blockchain company welcomed to Connecticut with a $5 million grant that was never paid out after DCG failed to create the three hundred jobs required by the offer.
Yuma Asset Management, which was just announced on October 9, “provides first-of-its-kind on-ramp for institutional and accredited investors to participate in the growth of open-source AI,” according to the press release. The company received an initial investment of $10 million from DCG. Barry Silbert serves as CEO of both Yuma and DCG and has ties to Oak HC/FT, the venture capital company co-owned by Gov. Ned Lamont’s wife, Annie Lamont. Oak HC/FT was an early investor in DCG in 2015, and Silbert was a co-investor with one of Oak HC/FT’s investment managers in 2021.
CT Innovations’ investment into Yuma was one of two initial investments made using its new $50 million AI/Q fund; the second investment was $2 million into Bexorg, a New Haven-based company born out of Yale using AI and neuroscience to develop new pharmaceuticals by testing them on post-mortem brains.
“Yuma and Bexorg exemplify the types of innovative and bold opportunities we seek to support through the AI/Q Fund,” said Matt McCooe, CEO of CT Innovations, in a press release. “One is providing investors with unprecedented exposure to a wave of early-stage AI innovation and the other is pushing the boundaries of AI-enabled neuroscience drug discovery and development. Both have the potential to transform their respective fields.”
Yuma has also partnered with the University of Connecticut, allowing graduate students to receive “experiential learning” on Yuma’s decentralized AI platform under a project dubbed “BittBridge.”
The AI/Q fund was proposed by Lamont as part of his 2025 AI bill that ultimately didn’t pass in its entirety. According to the bill summary, the AI/Q fund, CT Innovations could place $50 million of existing assets into the fund to “make investments or co-investments in Connecticut companies and those relocating significant operations to the state,” and that the investment could “include seed, start-up, early, first-stage, or expansion financing.” According to its latest 2024 financial statement posted on its website, CT Innovations is sitting on $225 million in net assets, including $163 million in investments
DCG was offered a $5 million grant through the Department of Economic and Community Development(DECD) to move from New York to Stamford in 2021 and create 300 jobs, coupled with an announcement by Gov. Ned Lamont. However, the company has faced some strong headwinds following the collapse of the crypto-company FTX due to fraud by Sam Bankman-Fried.
The collapse of FTX had a ripple effect throughout the cryptocurrency industry and led to DCG-owned company Genesis having to declare bankruptcy and face a lawsuit led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged DCG and Genesis hid $1.1 billion in losses, thus defrauding investors. In 2024, that matter was settled for $2 billion; in 2025, it was announced that DCG would pay a $38.5 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors.
The losses led to company layoffs at DCG subsidiaries in Stamford in 2023. At the time, DCG itself employed only 58 people, far less than state officials were hoping for. The $5 million offered by DECD in exchange for job creation was never paid out.
A recent audit of CT Innovations found the agency “did not sufficiently monitor whether companies participating in business assistance and incentive programs complied with requirements in their Connecticut presence agreements,” and therefore had reduced assurance that companies retained or grew jobs in the state. According to the audit, CI implemented a job verification policy in 2024, which showed 219 distributions totaling $93.3 million and retaining or creating 28,873 jobs.
In 2022, CT Innovations invested $1.25 million into 1906, a Colorado-based cannabis company that had only recently established a presence in the state and was competing for a highly sought after cannabis retail or manufacturing license. Although 1906 reestablished its headquarters in Stamford, by 2024, the company had yet to obtain a cannabis license, and does not appear to have obtained one since.
Reached for comment, CT Innovations Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Carmody said, “Our goal is to help all our portfolio companies grow in the state and we have internal resources dedicated to helping our portfolio hire key talent.”
“Venture investing is inherently high-risk and high-reward, but we conduct thorough due diligence before committing,” Carmody said. “We see strong potential for this company to drive industry change and will be watching its growth closely. Additionally, we strongly believe in the leadership team of Yuma.”
In a video announcement posted on LinkedIn, CT Innovations CEO Matt McCooe announced the launch of the AI/Q fund, saying the fund had “serious heat,” and announced the CT Innnovations’ two initial investments into Yuma and Bexorg.
“Some of you may have seen that DCG and Barry Silbert last week announced Yuma AM and it’s a new fund to invest in decentralized AI. There’s 128 small subnets, which are sort of like small businesses that will be incubating AI,” McCooe said. “Barry Silbert and Yuma and the DCG team are going to be all behind supporting these small companies and these small subnets as they get their businesses up and off the ground.”
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