Labs Raises $35M Series Seed II in Debt at $12.5B Valuation Read Our Announcement
Return to Newsroom

Labs Raises $35M Series Seed II EDGE Note at a $12.5B Valuation; Led by JetDebt Finance

Labs funding announcement

Labs Companies, Inc., the superintelligence human-enhancement technology company, has completed a Series Seed II financing of $35 million solely led by JetDebt Finance, the venture-debt firm of Jet Investments Group. The EDGE Note values Labs at $12.5 billion post-money and includes provisions for JetDebt to obtain equity at the Series A round.

This raise, completed just four months after Labs’ April financing, extends the company’s capital trajectory and advances its 1 Company, 7 Labs” vision. The first expression of that system is Yuhmmy App 2.0—the World’s 1st Social-Taste Super App for fun, funny, and flavorful audiovisual culinary conversations—opening this fall with exclusive early access at USC and UCLA.

Yuhmmy App 2.0

Yuhmmy App 2.0 turns everyday tasting into shared connection, allowing members to engage around food, drinks, sweets, snacks, and recreational flavors. Through live audiovisual Tasterooms and ultra short-form Taste Reactions, tasting becomes a time to create, stream, and connect with friends, family, and new communities.

Initially, Yuhmmy’s opening will be uniquely time-gated to mealtimes—Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Monday–Saturday, and Brunch, Dinner, and Dessert on Sundays—closing between meals mirroring everyday habits and giving each opening the atmosphere of sitting down together.

The Launch: USC & UCLA

On-campus rollouts at USC and UCLA will harmonize with student life, turning familiar human taste habits into an expressive layer on Yuhmmy.

While USC and UCLA lead the launch, everyone else—students nationwide, brands (e.g., Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Doritos), creators, media, and investors—can join the waitlist to reserve their place at the table.

The Tasteintelligence Engine

At its core, Yuhmmy App will be fueled by proprietary STAMs (Social-Taste AI Models) and STAGs (Social-Taste Agents)—a Tasteintelligence layer designed to ingest cravings, interpret flavor, and power new ways for people to share meals together.

From this Tasteintelligence foundation, Social-Taste Apps will emerge, carrying taste into events, shopping, maps, music, and more—all connected through the universal language of flavor.

Alongside, Yuhmmy introduces Yuhmmy Characters—a taste-native layer of expressive, collectible identities such as Palatepups, FlavorFriends, and TasteToons. Functioning as Digital & Physical Taste Valuables (DPTVs), Characters unlock premium content, PalatePoints, Yuhmmy Rewards, and new surfaces for partnerships inside Yuhmmy Promote, while empowering members to become Tastetrepreneurs.

A New Superindustry

Together, these elements establish the foundation of a new superindustry: the Commercial-Taste Industry (CTI).

In Their Words

“Series Seed, set the foundation; Series Seed II sharpens speed and precision,” said Duránd F. Davis Jr., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Labs. “This capital puts Yuhmmy App 2.0 directly into people’s hands—starting at USC and UCLA—while we deepen YuhmmyAI, Yuhmmy AR/VR and ready our ecosystem for scaled SAT economics.”

“JetDebt Finance partners with founders who execute with discipline,” said James E. Thomas, Head of the JET entities. “Labs is defining a taste-native category. This Series Seed II extension provides speed now and a clear path to equity at Series A, without slowing the company’s product cadence.”

“We’re focused on taste-centered design and scalable results,” said Maya E. Davis, Co-founder and President of Labs. “The next chapter is about experiences members can feel—in community, on campus, and across the Social-Taste Internet.”

The Business Model

While Labs has experienced range revenue (non-fixed, variable), this round is not about near-term revenue optics—it is about pre-empting the revenue ecosystems and economies across SAT (Subscriptions, Advertising, Transactions) within the company’s BREMS framework (Business, Revenue, Economic, Monetization, Sales).

Subscriptions will be anchored by the Yuhmmy Premium Packages (Y2P) with monthly and yearly tiers—starting with Pilot $5, Pulse $15, Plus $20, and Pro $100.

Advertising will be driven by Yuhmmy Promote, including TasteAds, STEBA (Social-Taste Expression-Based Ads), YAN! (Yuhmmy Advertising Network), and TAP! (Taste Advertising Platform), targeting Food & Beverage brands and CVCs like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, 7-Eleven, Darden, Mondelēz, Mars and more.

Transactions will flow through Yuhmmy Marketplaces—micro-taste transactions in the Taste Shop, Taste Store, and Taste Mart, Taste Now, Pay Later (TNPL) daily culinary consumables, and the upcoming Tastebank.

Traction & Valuation

Since the founding of Yuhmmy, early alpha programs—Version 1 and Version 1.0.1—showed strong promise, and Labs expects Yuhmmy App 2.0 this fall to have an even greater impact across Crave Communities, pairing real-time creation with taste-aware identity, payments, and marketplaces powered by lab1 (Labs Intelligence), lab2 (Labs Realities), and lab6 (LavLabs).

Labs last raised $22.5 million at a $10 billion post-money valuation in April 2025; today’s $12.5 billion level represents a 25% valuation increase, on par with other AI-first companies. This latest fundraise comes as the company prepares its two corresponding funding rounds—Pre-Series A and Series A—with conversations underway targeting corporate venture capital firms, food & beverage brands, and Tier-1 venture and private equity firms.

“Labs is architecting a new consumer internet around taste, culture, and commerce,” said the Investment Team at Face Ventures (Houston, Texas), founded by Brad “Scarface” Jordan, the older cousin of Duránd. “We’re excited to see Yuhmmy App 2.0 reach real communities and showcase what Social-Taste can unlock at scale.”