Crypto investment startup checks in with $300K deposit from Hilton Family Office

A strategic partnership with the Hilton Family Office is expected to help Kansas City-based Technology Labs on its mission to protect and educate new investors in the crypto jungle, shared co-founder Travis Wright.

The startup announced Tuesday that Hilton Finance — the lending and investment division of the boutique family office with deep ties to the Hilton Hotel empire — is investing $300,000 into its CoinResearch.ai platform, a cryptocurrency research and investing toolkit using AI-driven insights and tools to empower users to make informed, confident crypto investments.

Hilton’s support and strategic reach will enable Technology Labs to accelerate its impact and scale its mission globally, said Wright, co-founder of the startup and host of the Bad Crypto podcast, the second-longest-running crypto podcast.

“It’s nice to have somebody see what we’ve done, believe in it, and then put some more money in as we continue to raise,” he added.

The $300,000 is part of a  $1.3 million fundraising round for Technology Labs and is expected to help with its marketing push.

“Technology Labs is helping define the next frontier of financial research in the AI and blockchain space,” said J. Bradley Hilton, chairman of the Hilton Family Office and grandson of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, in a news release. “We believe their technology stack is foundational to the future of intelligent investing, and we’re excited to be part of this journey.”

Travis Wright, Technology Labs, right, chats with Learie Hercules, Heft IQ, at Startland News’ 2025 Startup Crawl event at Spark Kansas City; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Wright — along with CMO Shane Hackett and CTO Eric Fellows — launched CoinResearch in March 2024 after he fell for a honeypot scam — where crypto is put in and can’t be taken out — while checking into a potential project, he noted.

“If I’m a guy who’s been doing crypto since 2010, I’m pretty sophisticated,” Wright continued. “All these people who are coming into crypto now — what we’re calling the ‘E-trade babies,’ ‘the Motley Fools,’ the Gen X and Boomer investors, who’ve really have done a lion’s share of the investing up to this point — they’re going to be bringing their money in and it’s not safe. It’s a jungle.”

This realization led him to hire several financial researchers to create reports around the best AI projects, he said. Hackett — CMO at Legion Capital and Chairman of the Board at MarketLeverage who made the connections to Hilton Finance — was so impressed by the reports that he encouraged him to turn it into a product.

“We’ve been working on it now for about 18 months, all self funded,” he added. “Then the Hilton Family Office is like, ‘Hey, we’d like to utilize this information to help us on our new Hilton tech fund.’”

CoinResearch is designed to provide users with in-depth analysis, accurate ratings, and expert recommendations for cryptocurrency investments. Its advanced algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to deliver actionable insights that can help users make informed trading decisions.

“A lot of people in the crypto space will typically raise and have nothing,” Wright said. “They say, ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do.’ Having been in crypto for so long and having paid attention to the crypto markets in the space for so long, I didn’t want vaporware. If we’re going to raise money, I want us to have something that’s legit and built and badass and already working that way. When somebody comes in, they’re not just buying hopes and dreams.”