In recent years, creative markets and platforms have realized that they are in a data goldmine and can either use this data to develop their own AI models or turn it into a source of revenue by licensing it to other AI labs.
Wirestockwhich previously helped photographers distribute and sell their work on stock photography services like Shutterstock, has taken the latter path.
The company sought to become a data provider in 2023 and now supplies image, video, game and 3D design and content data sets to AI labs. Wirestock said its platform has signed up more than 700,000 artists and designers who complete different tasks to collect data, similar to freelancers on platforms like Fiverr.
Mikayel Khachatryan, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said Wirestock was transparent about its pivot and allowed artists to opt out of the data business (in 2022, the platform had over 100,000 photographers on its platform). Khachatryan did not specify how many people switched as data providers for the AI, saying only that “the majority” did.
“Initially, a lot of our offerings were selling off the shelf, like our existing library. But then that turned into a lot of custom requests for content and data, and that created new opportunities for creators, and the platform just took off,” he said.
The startup said Thursday it has raised $23 million in Series A funding to build the new data business. The round was led by Nava Ventures with participation from SBVP (co-founder of Sheryl Sandberg), Formula VC and I2BF Ventures.
Khachatryan says Wirestock currently provides multimodal data to six of the largest foundation model makers, but he would not name them. He noted that the company currently has an annual run rate of $40 million in revenue and has paid out $15 million to its contributors so far.
As part of the transition, the startup had to retrain some of its teams to annotate and annotate data in detail to make it useful for AI labs. He also had to build sales and business teams to be able to promote hyperscalers and find ways to get more creative input in areas like 3D modeling.
Wirestock currently uses email marketing and referral programs to bring in new contributors. Photographers, videographers and illustrators can apply for data on her website, but must complete an unpaid assignment as a quality check before being accepted. The company said it uses a combination of artificial intelligence and human reviews to rate all work on the platform.
Demand for data services is high right now as AI labs struggle to keep improving their models. Companies like Surge, Scale AI, and Mercor have built businesses worth tens of billions seemingly overnight based on demand for different kinds of data sets, and a number of new startups like Micro1, Human Archiveand Human Native AI also work with leading AI model builders.
Wirestock wants to focus on providing data for models that help with creative use cases like creating images and videos. The company is also exploring other avenues such as audio and music.
Freddie Martignetti, founder of Nava Ventures, said his fund was looking for a startup innovating in data sourcing and enhancement even before learning about Wirestock.
“I think Wirestock has a deep understanding of what basic modelers and hyperscalers need in terms of multimodal data to start building more human-like systems. The cornerstone of our thesis was that multimodal data will be increasingly important, not just for creating images or videos, but for models to complete real-world tasks,” Martignetti told TechCrunch.
Wirestock currently employs 60 people and will use the new funding to hire in research, engineering and product roles. It also builds enterprise software for AI labs to collaborate on datasets.
The funding round brings the startup’s total capital raised to around $26 million.
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