Signed data pioneer SignSplit launches with $400 million to help everyone get paid for their AI contributions

It seems that few tech companies can help users protect and monetize their artificial intelligence personal data as well as SignSplit PBC.

That explains why the company has already received a massive $1 billion valuation today after launching with record $400 million in funding from W Group, a global group made up of 11 financial technology companies focused on blockchain technology. SignSplit was quietly founded in 2024. Its founders set out to solve the growing challenge of personal data and its provenance at a time when AI was increasingly hungry for information.

The startup, led by co-founder and CEO Alessandro Monterosso, believes that the next generation of AI and intelligent robotics will require extremely high-quality, real-world human data, knowledge and creativity in science, media and healthcare. However, most existing AI models rely on data sourced from the Internet, and many of them have obscure origins.

To gain access to higher-value human data, AI developers will likely have to pay for it, and that means they must have a system in place to establish clear lineage, permissions, and usage rights. This is where SplitSign’s concept of “signed data” comes into play.

Signed data refers to human data contributions whose origin is verified and which gives clear consent for use under defined conditions. It has built the underlying infrastructure that allows this signed data to be contributed, verified, protected and licensed to ensure that anyone who provides high-quality data is compensated for it.

For individual contributors, SignSplit offers a clear promise: you “simply sign the data and split the value.” Users can protect their digital assets, including specific records, their likeness, voices and other works, by digitally signing them to establish verifiable consent and the conditions under which this data can be used by AI models.

Alternatively, users can contribute their data to SignSplit’s so-called “data pools,” which aggregate very specific types of data from multiple users and make it available to AI developers. The more value their data creates, the greater the financial benefit for contributors, who are compensated based on how frequently they use it.

Monterosso said the line between technology and human experience is increasingly blurring. “As AI moves further into the real world, human knowledge, creativity, skills and identity will become increasingly intertwined with how technology evolves and interacts with the world around us,” he said. “We believe SignSplit and the use of signed data can bridge the two, combining human contribution with protection, participation and compensation as technology advances.”

Although SignSplit wants individuals to contribute their data and get paid for it, it also targets companies by offering access to exactly the kind of high-quality data sets they need, without legal concerns or ethical ambiguities. Companies can create their own data pools and define what kind of real-world data or skills they need to train their AI models, allowing individuals to contribute them directly, provided they agree to the terms required by the company.

There are also “research pools” specifically for universities and life science companies, which relate to one-off and ongoing studies that require real human participation. Organizations can also use SignSplit’s verification layer to verify that a particular data set or image is signed, allowing them to ensure that their intended use meets the associated conditions.

W Group founder and president Volodymyr Nosov said his group will provide additional capital and resources to accelerate rapid global adoption of SignSplit technology and help it become the foundational infrastructure of the emerging signed data AI economy.

“SignedSplit sets a new standard for the use of the data, work and images of individuals and institutions,” he said. “We believe that every serious participant in the AI ​​and data economy will rely on SignSplit’s infrastructure, and the level of our commitment reflects both how early we believe we are and how important we believe these solutions will be to every industry that relies on human data.”

Images: SignSplit