Stock Photo Platform Pivots to Selling Data for AI Models
Wirestock, a platform that helped photographers and designers sell their work to stock services, has shifted to supplying datasets for artificial intelligence labs. The company raised $23 million in Series A funding Thursday to expand this new business, which generated $40 million in annual revenue last year.
The pivot reflects a broader trend among creative marketplaces: the data used to train AI models is more valuable than the original distribution business. Wirestock now supplies images, videos, design assets, and 3D content to six of the largest foundation model makers, though the company declined to name them.
How the Model Works
Wirestock has signed up more than 700,000 artists and designers who complete tasks for data collection. The company paid contributors $15 million last year for their work.
Photographers, videographers, and illustrators can apply on Wirestock's website to provide data. Applicants must complete an unpaid quality check task before acceptance. The company uses a mix of AI and human reviews to evaluate all submissions.
CEO Mikayel Khachatryan said the company was transparent about the shift and allowed existing users to opt out. He said "the majority" of the platform's 100,000+ photographers chose to participate in the data supply business instead.
Initial deals involved selling existing libraries of content. Custom requests from AI labs then created new opportunities for creators, Khachatryan said. The company now uses email marketing and referral programs to recruit contributors.
Building for Enterprise
Wirestock currently employs 60 people. The new funding will support hiring in research, engineering, and product roles, as well as development of enterprise software that lets AI labs collaborate on datasets.
The company had to retrain teams to annotate and label data in ways useful for AI labs. It also built sales and enterprise teams to pitch to hyperscalers and expand into areas like 3D modeling.
Wirestock focuses on data for models that support creative use cases, such as image and video generation. The company is exploring audio and music as additional areas.
Competitive Landscape
Demand for data supply services is high as AI labs race to improve their models. Companies like Surge, Scale AI, and Mercor have built billion-dollar businesses on dataset demand. Newer startups including Micro1, Human Archive, and Human Native AI are also working with major model makers.
Freddie Martignetti, founder of lead investor Nava Ventures, said he was looking for startups innovating on data procurement before learning about Wirestock. "Multimodal data will be increasingly important, not just to create images or videos, but for models to complete real-world tasks," he said.
The funding round brings Wirestock's total capital raised to approximately $26 million. The Series A was led by Nava Ventures, with participation from SBVP (co-founded by Sheryl Sandberg), Formula VC, and I2BF Ventures.
For creatives considering whether to contribute data to platforms like this, understanding generative art and how AI models work can help inform that decision. AI design courses also cover these topics for professionals in the field.
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