Miami-Based TrustedRouter Raises $1.25M as AI Model Routing Gains Momentum

On August 31, Miami-based AI infrastructure startup TrustedRouter announced that it raised $1.25 million in seed funding. Founded by Joseph Perla, TrustedRouter is tackling a growing question in artificial intelligence: With an increasing number of AI models available, which model should actually perform each task?

TrustedRouter is building infrastructure that helps users access and choose among different AI models and providers. The company has been in public beta since May 2026 and, just days before announcing its funding round, crossed one billion routed tokens in a single day. According to Perla, the company has been growing through word of mouth and bringing on hundreds of customers, including developers and startups in legal, finance and healthcare.

Early investors include Sam Lessin of Slow Ventures; Bill Tai, an early investor in Zoom and Canva; Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe; and George Xing, former Stripe data leader.

TrustedRouter has quickly captured the attention of prominent technology investors while bringing additional recognition to South Florida's growing technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

What Is AI Model Routing?

TrustedRouter's technology allows customers to use multiple AI models and providers rather than relying on just one or two. As more AI companies and models emerge, businesses have access to a growing number of options.

AI routing can essentially act as an air traffic controller for AI, directing requests to different models based on what a user needs. Different models have different strengths. Some may perform better at complex reasoning or coding, while others may be better suited for summarization, research or lower-cost tasks.

TrustedRouter's position is that there isn't one "best" model for everything. AI models and providers can vary in cost, speed, performance, privacy and reliability. Perla believes the rapidly expanding number of AI models makes the technology connecting them increasingly important.

"The routing layer is now critical infrastructure," Perla wrote in a recent blog post.

Rather than sending every request to the same model, a router can help select an appropriate model and provider for a particular task. TrustedRouter currently offers access to more than 600 models across more than 81 providers through one compatible API.

Privacy Becomes a Competitive Advantage

TrustedRouter is also positioning customer data protection as a major differentiator. Its open-source platform and confidential-computing infrastructure allow customers to establish minimum privacy requirements when routing requests. This can include a zero-data-retention route, meaning the AI can process information without the router retaining the prompt or response.

The company also offers a higher privacy setting that requires confidential computing and end-to-end encryption. According to TrustedRouter, when users establish a privacy level for a request, the platform will only fall back to another provider meeting that same requirement. If appropriate providers are unavailable, the request fails rather than automatically dropping to a lower privacy level.

Since an AI router can potentially sit between a company's sensitive information and numerous third-party AI models, TrustedRouter's position is that businesses should not have to sacrifice data privacy to access the model that best fits their needs.

For Perla, an important part of that approach is allowing customers to verify the technology rather than simply asking them to accept the company's privacy claims. "The point isn't trust us more. The point is you don't have to trust us at all, because you can verify yourself," Perla wrote.

TrustedRouter has made components of its technology open source and uses remote attestation designed to allow users to verify the software running on its infrastructure.

As AI moves from experimentation into enterprise operations, businesses may increasingly evaluate AI infrastructure based on more than model performance. Privacy, security and accountability could become increasingly important factors, and TrustedRouter is positioning itself to address that need.

Building Open-Source AI Infrastructure From South Florida

TrustedRouter's growth gives South Florida another example of technology being developed locally, but in a different segment of the AI ecosystem. Some companies use AI. Others build AI-powered applications or develop the underlying models. TrustedRouter is building infrastructure that helps businesses access and manage those models.

The company's emphasis on privacy could also make its technology relevant to industries with a significant presence in South Florida that routinely handle sensitive information. As defense tech, fintech and healthtech continue to expand throughout the region, secure AI infrastructure could play an increasingly important role.

Perla's own background also brings connections to established technology hubs outside the region. Before TrustedRouter, he founded Turntable.fm, worked on product and engineering for Facebook's News Feed on iOS, co-founded cloud computing company Terminal.com and later joined Lyft as one of its early engineers. Now, he is building TrustedRouter from Miami.

What TrustedRouter's Funding Means for South Florida

TrustedRouter's funding represents another dimension of South Florida's growing AI ecosystem. As demand for AI model routing increases, TrustedRouter adds AI infrastructure to the types of technology being developed in the region.

Between DermaSensor's recent announcement of an additional $5 million in funding and Miami-based Flamingo's $4.5 million raise, South Florida startups continue to attract funding from venture firms and investors around the country.

In addition to startups receiving investment, venture firms have also been relocating or expanding to South Florida. One recent example is Andreessen Horowitz's expansion into West Palm Beach.

TrustedRouter is another Miami-based AI startup attracting outside venture capital. The company gives the region exposure to an emerging area within the broader AI industry, while its investor group creates additional connections between South Florida and established technology and venture networks.

The investment also highlights the region's activity in AI, enterprise technology and privacy. TrustedRouter's focus on enterprise privacy could be particularly relevant as AI adoption grows within industries where South Florida already has a significant presence.

Perhaps most importantly for the region, TrustedRouter is an example of technology being built from Miami, rather than a major technology company simply establishing a South Florida office.

If businesses increasingly move toward using multiple AI models, the infrastructure connecting those businesses to models could become a more significant part of the AI technology stack.

As AI routing gains momentum and TrustedRouter continues to scale, the company's early growth and new funding could bring additional recognition to South Florida as a region where emerging AI infrastructure technology is not only being adopted, but built.

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