source: techcrunch ai: wirestock raises $23m to supply creative multi-modal data to ai labs
level: business
wirestock, once a platform for photographers to distribute work on stock sites, shifted in 2023 to providing datasets of images, videos, design assets, and 3d content to ai labs. the company now has over 700,000 artists and designers completing data collection tasks, similar to freelancers. co-founder and ceo mikayel khachatryan said most of its original photographer base opted into the new data supply model, which grew from selling existing libraries to fulfilling custom content requests.
the startup announced a $23 million series a round led by nava ventures, with participation from sbvp, formula vc, and i2bf ventures. wirestock reports an annual run-rate revenue of $40 million and has paid $15 million to contributors. it supplies multi-modal data to six major foundation model makers, though it did not name them. the company retrained teams for data annotation and labeling, built sales and enterprise units, and now uses email marketing and referrals to attract contributors, who must pass an unpaid quality check.
demand for data supply is high as ai labs race to improve models. wirestock focuses on creative use cases like image and video generation and is exploring audio and music. investor freddie martignetti of nava ventures said multi-modal data is key for models to perform real-world tasks. the funding will support hiring in research, engineering, and product, and building enterprise software for dataset collaboration. the round brings total funding to about $26 million.
why it matters: access to diverse, high-quality multi-modal data is critical for training advanced ai models, and platforms like wirestock streamline procurement for labs while creating income for creators.
source: techcrunch ai: wirestock raises $23m to supply creative multi-modal data to ai labs