1.1 From 2015 to 2025
1.1.1. 2015
Summary: Platinum Engineering was founded on August 28, 2015, by Tetsuji Nagata (12 years at Bloomberg Japan) and Anthony Dzi (ex-Salesforce, Microsoft Navision). The company focuses on developing Distributed Ledger and blockchain solutions, as well as providing consulting services for IT companies in the APAC region.
TL;DR: Platinum Engineering was founded on August 28, 2015, by co-founders Tetsuji Nagata (12 years in an executive role at Bloomberg Japan) and Antony Dzi (formerly of Salesforce and Microsoft Navision). From the outset, the company focused on developing solutions in Distributed Ledger and blockchain technologies. Platinum Engineering also provided consulting services to major IT giants, delivering cutting-edge developments and guidance on integrating blockchain into clients’ existing businesses. The company worked particularly closely with APAC clients, creating tailored Distributed Ledger technology solutions for them.
1.1.2. 2016-2017
Summary: Azam Shagagi (NASA, CNN) and Jack Huang (UN) joined the team. Clients like Japanese Airlines and Foxconn used Platinum Engineering’s blockchain consulting. Rising cryptocurrency interest boosted the company’s blockchain development and enterprise consulting expertise.
TL;DR: Azam Shaghaghi (NASA, CNN Journalist) and Jack Huang (United Nations) joined the team. The company deepened its focus on blockchain solutions, attracting major clients like Japan Airlines and Foxconn. These giants relied on Platinum Engineering’s consulting for years to explore blockchain integration into their operations. Amid growing interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain, the company expanded its capabilities in enterprise consulting and solution development.
1.1.3. 2017-2019 Summary: Mark Davis joined the team. The company grew to 140 employees. Client base expanded to include middle-class companies, startups, and mid-sized enterprises. Over 350 clients received ICO/IDO/IEO consulting, plus token listing and market-making support. Offices opened in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Melbourne. In 2017, Dan Homenko became a co-founder, accelerating startup collaboration. Platinum Engineering emerged as a global leader in crypto consulting.
TL;DR:Mark Davis joined the team. The company’s staff reached around 140 people. With the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies and the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) / IDO / IEO boom, Platinum Engineering began working with middle-class clients, mid-sized enterprises, and startups.
Over these years, the company advised more than 350 clients, assisting with blockchain technology development, tokenomics, token listings on exchanges, and post-listing market-making.
During this period, Platinum Engineering was one of the world’s leading crypto consulting businesses, with offices in Tokyo (Ichiban Chio 22-3), Seoul (Gangnam-gu District), Shanghai, and Melbourne.
In 2017, Dan Khomenko joined as a new co-founder, playing a pivotal role in expanding the client base. Under his leadership, the company began actively collaborating with crypto startups.
Dan Khomenko significantly accelerated decision-making and Platinum Engineering’s adaptation to handling a large influx of startup projects.
1.1.4. 2019
Summary: Despite the crypto winter, Platinum Engineering launched a web3 VC fund for early-stage crypto projects and an incubator for talented crypto developers. The company transformed into a VC+Incubator, optimizing its budget and reducing staff to 100 employees
TL;DR: This year, despite the crypto winter, Platinum Engineering launched:
A VC fund for early-stage investments in crypto projects.
An incubator to nurture and develop talented crypto builders.
From now on, Platinum Engineering is known as “Platinum Engineering: VC+Incubator.” The company’s staff is around 100 people, including 50 engineers.
This year saw staff reductions and budget optimization. However, it’s worth noting with pride that while many crypto companies shut down during this period, Platinum Engineering’s careful and strategic management of its treasury kept it strong.
1.1.5. 2020
Summary: During DeFi Summer, Platinum Engineering worked with Curve, Uniswap, and other protocols, creating numerous forks for various L2 chains. As GameFi and Metaverse trends arose, the company launched the Sidus Heroes metaverse, dedicating 30 engineers and securing over $20 million in investments.
TL;DR: The “DeFi Summer” begins, and Platinum actively engages in DeFi development, collaborating with protocols and builders like Curve, Uniswap, and others.
At the same time, the GameFi and Metaverse trends take off. Platinum Engineering takes a significant step toward advancing these technologies by partnering with game designers to create Sidus Heroes.
For this project, a portion of the Platinum team (30 engineers) was allocated to work with Sidus (https://sidusheroes.com/). The result was a successful metaverse that attracted over $20 million in the seed round (Animoca Brands co-lead the round). The success of Sidus marked a key milestone for Platinum, with investors satisfied by the token’s performance.
1.1.6. 2021
Summary: Platinum Engineering launched a CRM system for on-chain analytics, automating links to funds, investors, and VCs. Part of the executive team moved to Silicon Valley (Palo Alto), building ties with local investors. The company co-hosted "Crypto Mondays Palo Alto" meetups and created the "Palo Alto AI W3 Research Lab" community, including Stanford alumni, engineers from Google, Meta, Tesla, Netflix, and VCs from Sandhill Road.
TL;DR: In 2021, the Platinum team began actively developing on-chain analytics. With a growing number of startups needing assistance with token launches, sustainable tokenomics, and listings on various exchanges, the company decided to create a CRM system integrating both on-chain and off-chain data. This CRM’s development was made possible by Tony Dzi’s expertise, a former Salesforce and Microsoft Navision professional with a background in CRM solutions.
This system became the foundation of the company’s success, automating the discovery of new connections and contacts while significantly speeding up interactions with founders, builders, investors, VCs, and angels.
1.1.7. Move to Silicon Valley and Network Expansion
After the COVID-19 pandemic, part of the Platinum Engineering team relocated from Australia to Palo Alto, California, opening a new office. This move enabled closer collaboration with Silicon Valley investors and startups.
Leveraging its powerful CRM system, Platinum Engineering began building connections in Silicon Valley, enhancing work with existing projects and expanding its network. Many local investors, angels, and VCs started partnering with the company.
The creation of a crypto/AI community, including experts and investors from companies like Google, Facebook, Tesla, and others, marked a significant milestone in the company’s growth.
To facilitate active networking with local investors and builders, Platinum Engineering launched Palo Alto meetups, Crypto Mondays, and established communities for builders and VC firms:
Platinum Engineering became a regular co-organizer of Palo Alto Crypto Mondays (a non-commercial project founded by Lou Kerner).
Initially, these groups attracted local builders and investors, but as San Francisco and the Bay Area drew global talent, the communities grew to include investors and builders worldwide.
The team began hosting events on Stanford’s campus, connecting with numerous local alumni, professors, builders, and founders. This led to the creation of the Unofficial Stanford AI Research Lab, later renamed the Palo Alto AI Research Lab (due to members’ preference for neutrality and misalignment with Stanford executives’ views). The community now boasts over 700 members.
The core mission of the Palo Alto AI Research Lab is to support builders and founders by sharing value and expertise.
Originally called the Unofficial Stanford AI Web3 Research Lab, it was later renamed the Palo Alto AI Web3 Research Lab following changes in Stanford’s management. This community has become a vital source of knowledge, ideas, and new projects for Platinum Engineering.
You can apply to join by filling out this form: https://airtable.com/appLarbfriXahrtqZ/shr5gzwz5sHUd9UKJ
1.1.8. 2022-2023
Summary: Platinum Engineering leveraged its CRM for startup-investor matchmaking, facilitating 20+ daily introductions. The company focused on optimizing blockchain development, integrating AI into the CRM, and consulting on crypto-AI project integration. The Palo Alto AI Research Lab grew to 300 members.
TL;DR: In 2022, Platinum Engineering continued enhancing its CRM system, using it to facilitate matchmaking and warm introductions between Silicon Valley investors and startups worldwide.
The CRM integrates with Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and email, enabling coordination among a vast number of people.
A unique feature: each individual in the CRM is tagged extensively, allowing instant matches between founders and investors most likely to fund them, and providing investors with projects they’re most inclined to back.
The CRM has enabled numerous projects to secure funding, facilitating around 20 introductions daily—between VCs and VCs, VCs and launchpads, VCs and founders, and founders and launchpads/incubators.
The company’s client base is growing rapidly as it serves as a hub of expertise on launching tokens, building sustainable token economies, and creating utility tokens and markets for them.
The CRM has significantly accelerated interactions, helping many projects attract the right investments and laying the foundation for further company growth as more startups seek assistance with token launches and crypto projects.
In 2022-2023, during another crypto winter when projects focused more on building than token launches, Platinum Engineering actively provided blockchain development expertise and supported numerous builders in advancing their projects.
Since 2022, Platinum Engineering has been exploring AI technologies and integrating AI automation into its CRM. In Silicon Valley, where AI is a hot topic—and, frankly, crypto has never been the biggest star—the company works with AI projects and builders, advising them on leveraging crypto for their AI initiatives. For instance, crypto could be the only financial bridge for autonomous AI agents interacting with the outside world—AI can’t open a bank account, but it can use a Bitcoin wallet.
In 2023, the company continues refining its CRM system.
1.1.9. 2024
Summary:In 2024, Platinum Engineering focused on AI agents and automation, contributing to AI16z (Eliza OS) while sidelining memecoins. The Palo Alto Research Lab grew to 700+ members—engineers from Google, Tesla, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Stanford alumni, and Sand Hill Road VCs—all bullish on AI. The AI-enhanced CRM automated tasks and connected global projects with Silicon Valley. Foreseeing billions of AI agents, the company starts to build a Launchpad for Autonomous AI Agents, preparing for a 2026-2027 economic shift with three new products.
TL;DR: In 2024, dubbed the year of meme coins, Platinum Engineering didn’t heavily focus on meme coins and instead dove deeper into the development of AI and AI agents, particularly autonomous AI agents. During this time, the Palo Alto Research Lab community grew to over 700 members. This group included current and former engineers from Google, Tesla, Meta, Amazon, and Netflix, as well as academics (alumni and professors, mostly from Stanford), numerous investors from Sand Hill Road, founders, and aspiring investors. The majority of these 700 individuals were from Silicon Valley, highly optimistic about AI and AI agents. As a result, Platinum Engineering, in collaboration with Palo Alto Research Lab, amassed vast expertise in AI, AGI, AI infrastructure, and more.
Primarily, coordinating our large and vibrant community and assisting numerous projects worldwide while staying connected with Silicon Valley experts—all of this was made possible thanks to our CRM system.
A big thank you goes to our backend developers who integrated more and more AI features into our AI-CRM. This has allowed a significant amount of routine and creative work to now be handled by AI. The year 2024 also marked the rise of numerous frameworks for building AI agents. Platinum Engineering actively explored these frameworks and even contributed to the open-source framework AI16z. Specifically, they made contributions to the codebase of the well-known agent framework ai16z/elizaOS. That same year, the Platinum team realized that the world would soon see an explosion of agents—not just thousands or millions, but likely billions. Each of these agents would be highly specialized for specific tasks. Consequently, the company’s plans for the following year center on creating a Launchpad for Autonomous AI Agents.
Platinum Engineering recognized that AI agents will transform the entire labor market and economy in 2026, 2027, and beyond. To stay ahead, preparation must begin now. Accordingly, Platinum Engineering is currently developing three products.
1.1.10. 2025-2026:
Summary: Cambrian Explosion of AI Agents Millions of AI agents. Soon, thousands (and by 2026, millions) of AI agents will emerge, created by both humans and AI. This will spark a wave of token launches for AI agents, with many failures but also notable successes.
Too many AI agent platforms, too complicated. There are already 20+ platforms for building agents—like LangChain, AutoGen, CrewAI, n8n, Lovable, Bolt, and Botpress—and soon there will be 100. For the average builder, choosing and mastering a framework to build an AI agent is overwhelming. Fortunately, AI can solve this.
Agent building—simplified. We’re not competing by creating yet another framework. Instead, we’re building a shell that simplifies agent creation by coordinating and integrating multiple frameworks, such as LangChain for language model chaining, AutoGen for multi-agent systems, and Vertex AI Agent Builder for enterprise-grade solutions.
Memory is the key component. The better an agent’s memory, the more personalized its interaction with you, and the higher the quality of its output. Agents are all about hyper-customization—think of them as a friend who gets you with just "half a word."
By AI Builders for AI Builders. Platinum Engineering, collaborating with the Palo Alto AI De-Sci Research Lab (a 700+ member community of AI builders, investors, engineers, and mentors), leverages its deep AI expertise to make a significant impact through their products (more about the products below
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