Portland startup Graze raises $1M to help people build Bluesky feeds

Graze, a Portland startup looking to capitalize on the growth of Bluesky, raised $1 million in a pre-seed round led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures. Founded less than a year ago, Graze offers tools to help Bluesky users create custom feeds catered to their interests, rather than relying on algorithmic curation. It also offers tools for developers to build and customize new experiences on Bluesky. Graze says 2.3 million people have seen feeds powered by its software. Graze is built on the AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol), which is the same decentralized social network protocol that powers Bluesky. The AT… Read More

Apr 16, 2025 - 23:39

Portland startup Graze raises $1M to help people build Bluesky feeds

Graze co-founders Peat Bakke (left) and Devin Gaffney. (Graze Photo)

Graze, a Portland startup looking to capitalize on the growth of Bluesky, raised $1 million in a pre-seed round led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures.

Founded less than a year ago, Graze offers tools to help Bluesky users create custom feeds catered to their interests, rather than relying on algorithmic curation. It also offers tools for developers to build and customize new experiences on Bluesky.

Graze says 2.3 million people have seen feeds powered by its software.

Graze is built on the AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol), which is the same decentralized social network protocol that powers Bluesky.

The AT Protocol lets users own their data, including their social graph, and move it across different apps.

Graze is led by CEO and co-founder Peat Bakke, former vice president of engineering at Treasury4 and former senior director of engineering at Peek.

“By leveraging open infrastructure, we’re empowering users to curate their own content experiences, ensuring they have the autonomy to shape their social media interactions according to their preferences,” Bakke said in a statement.

Graze CTO and co-founder Devin Gaffney was previously a machine learning engineer at Meedan.

Other backers include Factorial, Apertu Capital, Skyseed, and angel investors from Mozilla and Protocol Labs.

Graze is starting to explore potential advertising revenue models, TechCrunch noted.

Bluesky surged late last year thanks to an exodus of users from X, but growth has slowed in recent months. It has nearly 35 million users.