Created by Humans
Created by Humans is a 2024-founded marketplace that lets authors and publishers license book rights to AI developers for training, reference, and transformative use, charging transaction-based fees per licensing deal. It serves individual authors, literary estates, publishers, and AI/LLM companies, and counts 50+ bestselling authors and an Authors Guild partnership among its supply-side credentials.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2024
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Created by Humans does
Created by Humans is a U.S.-based, venture-backed marketplace that brokers licensing of book rights to AI developers. The company operates a self-serve web platform (app.createdbyhumans.ai) where authors and literary agents verify identity, claim published works, configure AI rights preferences (training, reference, transformative), and approve or decline licensing offers; on the demand side, AI/LLM developers contact the company directly to license curated bundles of rights-cleared books. The supporting infrastructure includes a public library catalog (library.createdbyhumans.ai), third-party author identity verification, and a rights/payment management dashboard. The company's stated governance framework, branded "The Fourth Law" and operationalized via the American AI and Copyright Accord, codifies consent, control, compensation, credit, and continuous learning principles for creator-AI relationships.
The business model is transaction-based: AI developers negotiate per-deal licensing agreements and the company retains a portion of licensing fees. Pricing is quote-based, not published, and the model is described internally as "one agreement, one invoice." Revenue streams combine licensing royalties (paid by AI developers for access to rights-cleared content) and transaction fees on each licensing event. The customer base is segmented into supply-side authors and publishers (individual creators, estates, literary agents, and traditional/independent book publishers) and demand-side AI/LLM developers seeking legally cleared training and reference data.
Go-to-market combines direct enterprise sales to AI developers, community-led evangelism through founding authors (Walter Isaacson, Douglas Preston, James Patterson, Susan Orlean), a strategic distribution partnership with the Authors Guild (14,000+ members), and earned media in major business and publishing outlets. The company was founded in 2024 by Trip Adler (previously founder of Scribd), Edward Igushev, and Jen Singerman, is headquartered in San Francisco with a New York presence, and has raised approximately $5.5 million in seed funding led by Craft Ventures and Floodgate with broad angel participation.
Created by Humans firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Created by Humans
- Legal name
- Created by Humans
- Website
- https://createdbyhumans.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2024
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Created by Humans is a 2024-founded marketplace that lets authors and publishers license book rights to AI developers for training, reference, and transformative use, charging transaction-based fees per licensing deal. It serves individual authors, literary estates, publishers, and AI/LLM companies, and counts 50+ bestselling authors and an Authors Guild partnership among its supply-side credentials.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Created by Humans industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Content Licensing Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (51321)
- SIC
- Patent Owners & Lessors (6794), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Creator Licensing & Rights Monetization (UGC Licensing, Music/Video Rights) (MPACAFAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Podcast Rights Management, IP Licensing & Content Sales (MPACADAH), Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG), AI Privacy Engineering & Data Governance (PII, consent, retention) (HDAAAKAB)
Keywords
Where Created by Humans is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Created by Humans business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- AI Rights Licensing Fees: The company facilitates licensing transactions between content creators and AI developers. They handle permissions, negotiations, and payouts. AI developers pay for access to rights-cleared training and reference content. The company retains a portion of licensing fees as revenue.
- Transaction-based Licensing: Platform handles 'one agreement, one invoice' model for AI developers licensing content bundles or individual works. Revenue is generated per transaction rather than through subscription.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Quote-based licensing for AI developers |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Created by Humans product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Created by Humans operates a web-based AI Rights licensing platform that enables book authors and publishers to enroll their works, configure AI licensing preferences (training, reference, transformative rights), and receive compensation when AI developers license their content. The platform handles permissions, negotiations, identity verification, secure file delivery and payouts in a single workflow, giving AI developers access to curated, rights-cleared book bundles for model training and reference use.
Product overview
Created by Humans is a unified licensing platform consisting of the core Created by Humans Platform (author dashboard and rights management interface), curated book bundles with Training Rights and Reference Rights, and a governance framework called The Fourth Law. Authors use the platform to enroll their works, configure AI licensing preferences, and receive compensation when AI developers license their content. AI developers access the platform to obtain legally-cleared, author-approved content for training and reference purposes.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Created by Humans Platform Web-based AI Rights licensing platform that enables authors and publishers to enroll their books, verify identity, configure per-work AI licensing preferences (training, reference, transformative rights), approve or decline licensing offers, and track payments, while giving AI developers access to curated, rights-cleared content under a single agreement.
- Books with Training Rights Curated collection of books licensed for AI training purposes, including works by Walter Isaacson, Douglas Preston, Susan Orlean and other bestselling authors, delivered as ready-to-use datasets to AI developers.
- Books with Reference Rights Curated collection of books licensed for AI reference purposes, allowing AI systems to reference content in their outputs while ensuring proper licensing and compensation to rights holders.
Companies that use Created by Humans
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Created by Humans technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Created by Humans partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Authors GuildcoreThe Authors Guild, America's oldest and largest professional organization for writers with 14,000+ members, has partnered with Created by Humans to promote the platform to their membership. The partnership includes promotion and Mary Rasenberger, CEO of Authors Guild, joining the Created by Humans Advisory Board. This partnership provides significant distribution access for the platform.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Created by Humans competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ProRata.ai: AI attribution and content-licensing platform founded by Bill Gross/IdeaLab that pays publishers and content owners for use of their material by generative AI. Direct competitor in the rights-clearing-for-AI category, targeting a similar two-sided market of content owners and AI developers.
- TollBit: Licensing and analytics platform that lets publishers monetize access to their content by AI bots and crawlers. Competes directly with Created by Humans on the publisher/AI-developer interface, though TollBit's wedge is bot monetization rather than training-data licensing.
- HumanNative: AI data marketplace that connects rights holders with AI developers for licensed training data. Closely comparable two-sided model focused on compensating creators for AI use of their work.
Broad incumbents
- Shutterstock: Public stock-media licensing giant that has signed multi-year deals (e.g., with OpenAI, Meta, Apple) to license its image/video library for AI training. Represents the incumbent model of large-scale rights-cleared data licensing that Created by Humans is replicating for books.
- Getty Images: Stock-photo incumbent actively litigating (Stability AI) and licensing for generative AI use of its library. Closely comparable to Created by Humans in terms of rights-holder-to-AI-developer commercial model, though at much larger scale and in imagery.
- Adobe: Built Firefly on a licensed Adobe Stock corpus and offers enterprise indemnification to commercial users. Comparable as a vertically-integrated player that combines rights-cleared training data with creator-facing monetization.
Emerging players
- Scale AI: Large data-labeling and curation vendor increasingly building infrastructure for AI training-data supply. Adjacent rather than direct — overlapping on the 'high-quality AI data' theme but not rights-clearing for copyright.
- Scramble (formerly License Music): Music rights-clearing marketplace for AI training. Comparable model in a sibling creator vertical (music rather than books), and a leading indicator of how AI rights marketplaces are forming across media categories.
Others
- Associated Press: Signed an early direct licensing deal with OpenAI for news content. Comparable as a rights holder that has chosen direct licensing over a marketplace, representing a potential disintermediation risk for Created by Humans.
- Scribd: Digital book subscription and self-publishing platform founded by CEO Trip Adler in 2007. Not a direct competitor but a key reference point — the same founder's prior business in book distribution signals domain expertise and potential channel overlap.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Created by Humans social profiles
Digital presenceCreated by Humans financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Created by Humans leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Created by Humans funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Created by Humans M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Created by Humans
What does Created by Humans do?
Created by Humans operates a web-based AI Rights licensing platform that enables book authors and publishers to enroll their works, configure AI licensing preferences (training, reference, transformative rights), and receive compensation when AI developers license their content. The platform handles permissions, negotiations, identity verification, secure file delivery and payouts in a single workflow, giving AI developers access to curated, rights-cleared book bundles for model training and reference use.
Is Created by Humans a public or private company?
Created by Humans is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Created by Humans founded?
Created by Humans was founded in 2024. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Created by Humans based?
Created by Humans is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Created by Humans make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. AI Rights Licensing Fees are the primary driver. The others are transaction-based Licensing.
Who are Created by Humans's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ProRata.ai, TollBit and HumanNative. Broad incumbents are Shutterstock, Getty Images and Adobe. Emerging players are Scale AI and Scramble (formerly License Music). Others are Associated Press and Scribd.
Does Created by Humans have an API?
No public API is recorded for Created by Humans.
What industry is Created by Humans in?
Created by Humans's product category is AI Content Licensing Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPACAFAK, Creator Licensing & Rights Monetization (UGC Licensing, Music/Video Rights), with a secondary code of MPACADAH, Podcast Rights Management, IP Licensing & Content Sales. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 6794.