Sage Digital

What Sage Digital does

Sage Digital (legal entity Sage, Inc.) operates an AI-driven platform that enables verified experts — including talent, chefs, owners, and celebrities — to build Channels and Apps for distributing original and curated content, socially engaging with fans, and transacting for digital content, events, merchandise, and donations. The platform also serves Campaign Creators (including 501(c)(3) charities) who raise donations through Stripe-processed payment flows. Underlying technology centers on the Sage AI Platform, which combines multi-source data ingestion (structured, semi-structured, and unstructured), Sage Pipes indexing machinery, semantic web architecture, and ML models trained on a manually curated verified-expert dataset that grew from 100 nominees in 2016 to 1,000. Sage generates revenue through recurring paid Channel subscriptions and transaction fees on donations and merchandise sales; pricing is not publicly disclosed.

The company was founded in 2016 by Samir Arora, with prior concept validation from Eddy Cue (Apple) and John Giannandrea (then running Google AI/Search) via Eric Schmidt. It is headquartered in Woodside, California (2995 Woodside Road #400), and maintains engineering and operations across 10+ global locations including Silicon Valley, Vancouver, Venice, Tokyo, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, New York, London, and Thailand. Sage has spun out and is now re-consolidating AI-adjacent entities — Kyro Digital (Web 3.0 applications platform, spun out 2021, re-acquired September 2025), Kanza AI (LLM/proprietary data, 2022), and Kasso (Expert ID, Expert App, and Experts Protocol, 2023) — and runs the Sage Plus Experts Program with launch partners including celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson and WME's Chris Jacquemin.

Name

Sage Digital

Legal name

Sage, Inc.

Website

https://sagedigitalcorp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Sage Digital operates an AI-driven platform that enables verified experts, talent, chefs, and celebrities to create Channels and Apps for content distribution, fan engagement, and monetization through subscriptions, donations, and merchandise sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Expert Identity and Creator Monetization Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Authenticity, Watermarking & Deepfake Detection (HDAAAKAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

AI-Generated Content Detection & Authorship Verification (EDAFALAB)

Keywords

• Verified expert platform
• Expert identity verification
• Creator monetization software
• AI knowledge indexing
• Community content network

Headquarters

HQ city

Portola Valley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices10 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Channel Subscriptions and Paid Content: Experts can create Channels that can be free or paid. Experts can create paid Content within a Channel and transact with Channel members or other users for digital content.
2. Campaign Donations and Fundraising: Platform allows Campaign Creators to raise donations for causes. Users can make one-time or recurring donations. Payment processing fees apply to transactions.
3. Merchandise and Non-Digital Sales: Experts can transact with Channel members for non-digital items like offers, events, and merchandise sales.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Sage Digital operates a software platform for verified experts — including talent, chefs, owners, and celebrities — to create expert identity applications and monetizable Channels and Apps. The platform combines an AI/ML-based verified expert identity system with social, content distribution, and transaction capabilities (subscriptions, donations, and merchandise), supported by a semantic web indexing stack and third-party payment processing through Stripe.

Product overview

Sage Digital is a unified platform for verified experts (talent, chefs, owners, celebrities) featuring a core Sage Digital Platform that enables experts to create Channels and Apps for content distribution, social connection, and transactions. The platform is supported by the Sage AI Platform for verified expert identity and knowledge applications, with sub-products Sage Plus (expert program), Expert ID, Expert App, and Experts Protocol (built by Kasso). The company has also spun out related ventures including Kyro Digital (Web 3.0 applications) and Kanza AI (public LLM proprietary data learning).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sage Plus: A platform designed for verified experts and businesses, powering the next generation Verified Expert Identity Applications.
• Sage AI
• Sage Digital

Products and services

• Sage Digital Platform
• Sage AI Platform
• Sage Plus
• Sage Plus Experts Program

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and advisory.

• Google (John Giannandrea)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Met with John Giannandrea (then running Google AI and Search) at Google in early 2016 with help from Eric Schmidt. His feedback validated the expertise-based approach: 'Search and AI language models use data based on volume and popularity, your idea of building based on expertise is a fundamental pillar that is missing and needed for the web and AI.'
• Marcus SamuelssoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCelebrity chef and restaurateur with The Marcus Samuelsson Group. Serves as a launch deal partner for Sage Plus Experts platform, bringing culinary expertise and celebrity chef audience to the platform.
• Derek EvanscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCEO of The Marcus Samuelsson Group, with background at MSNBC and Spyglass Entertainment. Launch deal partner providing business leadership and media industry connections.
• Chris JacquemincoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner, Head of Digital Media at WME (William Morris Endeavor). Background includes Disney/ABC and CBS. Launch deal partner leveraging entertainment industry relationships.
• Andrew SchwabecheradvisoryTechnology or IntegrationTech Advisor. CEO of Japan Computer Vision Corp, former CTO/Head of Cloud Business Development at Softbank.
• Jeet KauladvisoryTechnology or IntegrationTech Advisor. SVP Engineering at JUMIO, background includes VP Eng at FICO, Juniper, Java/Sun, and GM at AWS ELB.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationThird-party payment processor used to process donations, payments, and transactions on the Sage platform.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Patreon: Patreon is the dominant subscription platform for creators to monetize content via paid memberships. Directly comparable to Sage Digital's Channel subscription model, though broader in scale and creator categories.
• Cameo: Cameo enables celebrities and experts to monetize their personal brand through personalized video messages and direct fan engagement. Most comparable to Sage Digital on the celebrity/expert monetization use case and direct-to-consumer fan relationship model.
• Circle: Circle is a community platform enabling creators and brands to launch paid membership communities. Comparable to Sage Digital's paid Channel/community model with similar self-serve creator tooling.
• Buy Me a Coffee: Buy Me a Coffee enables creators to receive donations and memberships from fans. Comparable to Sage Digital's donation/campaign features and subscription model, with similar lightweight creator onboarding.
• Substack: Substack enables writers and experts to build paid subscription newsletters. Comparable to Sage Digital on the verified expert/subscription monetization model, though focused on written content vs. Sage's multi-format approach.
• Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks powers paid communities and courses for creators and experts. Directly comparable to Sage Digital's Channels-as-container model for expert-led community monetization.
• Kajabi: Kajabi provides creators with tools to build courses, communities, and subscription products. Comparable on the expert-knowledge-monetization axis, with similar multi-stream revenue tooling.

Emerging players

• Maven: Maven enables verified experts to run cohort-based courses and cohort programs. Comparable on the verified-expert monetization thesis and the same advisors/network as Sage Digital (the company's Elizabeth Thompson came from Maven).
• Genius: Genius built a knowledge platform around verified annotations and expert contributions to creative works. Comparable on the verified-expert-knowledge semantic web concept that Sage Digital aspires to, though Genius is more niche.

Broad incumbents

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn operates the dominant professional identity platform with creator monetization features (Newsletters, LinkedIn Live). Broad incumbent competing with Sage Digital's verified-expert identity thesis at massive scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses2 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sage Digital