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Based in Tiburon, California, Created by Humans operates a marketplace platform that connects authors and other content creators with major artificial intelligence companies to license creative work for AI model training. The platform establishes a standardized legal framework allowing intellectual property owners to be directly compensated when their materials are utilized to train generative AI systems, bypassing traditional copyright litigation. Initially focused on the publishing sector, the company plans to expand its licensing infrastructure to encompass independent video creators, musicians, and medical data providers. The enterprise secured $5 million in seed funding from a syndicate of prominent venture capital investors including David Sacks, Mike Maples, and Jason Calacanis, while best-selling author Walter Isaacson serves as a creative advisor. Created by Humans was officially founded in 2024 by Trip Adler, Edward Igushev, and Jen Singerman.
Created by Humans has raised $6.0M across 1 funding round.
Created by Humans has raised $6.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Created by Humans has raised $6.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Created by Humans's investors include Afore Capital, AperiamVentures, Craft Ventures, Fifth Wall, FJ Labs, Floodgate, Foundry Group, Freestyle Capital, LAUNCH, Madrona Ventures, Next47, RRE Ventures.
Created by Humans has raised $6.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $6.0M Seed in June 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2024 | $6M Seed | — | Afore Capital, Aperiamventures, Craft Ventures, Fifth Wall, FJ Labs, Floodgate, Foundry Group, Freestyle Capital, LAUNCH, Madrona Venture Group, Next47, RRE Ventures, Second Century Ventures, Silverton Partners, Slow Ventures, SNR, Y Combinator, Adam Gross, Scott Belsky, Aaron Levie, Adam D'angelo, AirAngels, Akshay Kothari, ALT Capital, Amjad Masad, Azeem Azhar, Better Tomorrow Ventures, C2 Investment, Caffeinated Capital, Chingona Ventures, Claire Hughes Johnson, CP Ventures, Giant Ventures, Goat Capital, Johan Lorenzen, Kyle Vogt, Lainy, Larry Summers, Lerer Hippeau, Mark Gillespie, Menlo Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Oyster Ventures, Pareto Holdings, TenOneTen Ventures, The HIT Forge | Announced |
Created by Humans is a San Francisco-based technology company founded in 2024 that operates an AI rights licensing platform for creators, primarily authors and rights holders.[1][2][4][5][6] The platform enables creators to upload works via ISBN or direct file, set licensing preferences for AI uses like training, reference (via Retrieval Augmented Generation), and future transformative rights, and receive compensation when AI companies license the content, while retaining control and intellectual property rights.[1][5][6] It serves authors, publishers, agents, and AI developers, solving the problem of unauthorized AI training on creative works amid ongoing lawsuits and legal uncertainties by providing a transparent marketplace for direct licensing.[4][5] The company has raised $10.5M total ($5M pre-seed in June 2024 from Floodgate, Slow Ventures, Craft Ventures; $5M seed from Giant Ventures and angels like Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt, Drew Houston, Cal Henderson), achieving early traction with dozens of authors testing the product and plans to expand to publishers and agents.[1][4][5]
Created by Humans emerged from stealth in 2024 as the brainchild of Trip Adler, former CEO of Scribd—a document-sharing platform that evolved into a digital book and news subscription service—leveraging his deep publishing industry experience and relationships.[4] Adler identified the growing divide between creators (writers, artists, etc.) fearing AI as an existential threat to livelihoods and technologists viewing it as a path to innovation, aiming to bridge this gap thoughtfully to let human creativity thrive alongside AI.[2][4] The idea crystallized amid rising lawsuits against AI firms for unlicensed training data, positioning the platform as a proactive alternative to legal battles.[4] Key early backers like David Sacks (Craft Ventures), Garry Tan, and Walter Isaacson validated its potential, with Adler emphasizing a "three-way deal" involving authors, publishers, and AI companies; the team spent 6-9 months refining legally robust agreements in partnership with the Authors Guild for accessibility beyond big players.[4][5] Headquartered at 201 Spear Street in San Francisco, it quickly launched its first iteration for authors, marking pivotal momentum.[1][5]
Created by Humans rides the explosive generative AI trend, where models require vast training data amid lawsuits from creators over copyright (e.g., no clear framework for fair use in AI training).[4] Timing is ideal post-2024 AI boom, as technologists seek ethical, licensed datasets to avoid litigation and build community goodwill, while creators demand compensation—market forces like regulatory scrutiny and IP enforcement favor marketplaces over adversarial scraping.[1][4][5] It influences the ecosystem by standardizing AI licensing (e.g., training/reference rights now, transformative later), reinvigorating publishing with new revenue streams, and bridging creator-technologist divides to sustain human creativity as AI automates.[2][4][5] Competitors like Spaceport (metaverse IP), Red Points (brand protection), and Human Native highlight a nascent sector, but Created by Humans differentiates via author focus and speed to market.[1][4]
Next steps include publisher/agent onboarding, transformative rights rollout, and dataset expansion to non-book media, potentially scaling "AI revenue" to eclipse e-books/audiobooks in publishing.[4][5][6] Trends like AI regulation, ethical data sourcing, and multimodal models will propel growth, evolving its influence from niche bridge-builder to essential infrastructure for creator-AI symbiosis. As the vanguard in humanizing AI's data hunger, Created by Humans positions creators to thrive, ensuring technology amplifies rather than erases human ingenuity.[2][4]
