Snorkel AI, a startup that helps AI labs and corporations build training datasets and simulated environments, has raised $350 million in a Series E round, led by Insight Partners and S32. The new round values the seven-year-old startup at $3.5 billion, nearly triple its previous valuation of $1.3 billion.
Snorkel originally provided software for data-labeling automation, but shifted last year to providing customers with completed datasets, an offering it calls data-as-a-service. Rather than operating purely as a human expert marketplace, Snorkel relies on a hybrid approach, using its software and models to generate data synthetically alongside subject matter experts.
The company's annualized revenue run rate now stands at $375 million, an 18-fold increase over the last 12 months. This growth is fueled by AI labs' insatiable appetite for high-end training data. Other data companies positioning themselves as AI data labs have seen a similar explosion in growth, with Mercor's gross annualized revenue climbing to $2 billion and Handshake hitting the $1 billion milestone earlier this year.
Snorkel's business model differs from other data companies, as it sells reinforcement learning environments and complete datasets rather than human labor. Payments to its human experts are accounted for in its cost of goods sold, rather than headline-generating annualized revenue numbers. This approach has allowed the company to scale quickly, with its revenue growing rapidly over the past year.
Snorkel launched commercially in 2019, following four years of research by co-founder and CEO Alex Ratner and his team at a Stanford AI lab. The company's growth is a testament to the increasing demand for high-quality training data in the AI industry, and its unique approach has positioned it as a leader in the market.
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