Velvet Media
Velvet Media operates a multimodal data platform that simulates realistic human workflows across text, image, and video to supply training and evaluation datasets for AI companies developing frontier models. It runs a two-sided model, paying data contributors and selling curated datasets to frontier AI developers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Velvet Media does
Velvet Media, Inc. is a privately held, early-stage company headquartered in San Francisco that operates a multimodal data platform for training and evaluating frontier AI models. The company's stated offering simulates the ways humans navigate real-world workflows across text, image, and video modalities to produce realistic training and evaluation datasets, positioning itself against generic data labeling and scraping vendors by targeting the specific needs of next-generation AI development.
The platform is structured as a two-sided system. On the supply side, contributors can register, set up payment accounts via Stripe or Wise, and upload dataset samples (text, image, or video) for review and potential inclusion. On the demand side, prospective enterprise customers submit dataset requirements through a 'Request a Meeting' form, after which Velvet schedules a consultation. The core product, branded as the Velvet Dataset Platform and accessible at velvetlab.ai, includes user authentication, a contributor dashboard, and intake flows for both sample submissions and meeting requests. No public pricing, self-serve product, or API is offered; engagement is quote-based.
Velvet's go-to-market is sales-led B2B, targeting AI/ML companies developing frontier models — a small, high-value buyer segment. The revenue model is described as recurring/subscription-based, though no contract structures, tiers, or pricing are disclosed. No revenue figures, funding rounds, named customers, partnerships, awards, or leadership team are present in the available data. The company is actively hiring across research, engineering, and operations, which is the principal signal of operational momentum. Corporate incorporation appears to be US-based (indicated by the 'Inc.' suffix), and the platform copyright is dated 2026.
Velvet Media firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Velvet Media
- Legal name
- Velvet Media, Inc.
- Website
- https://velvet.video
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Velvet Media operates a multimodal data platform that simulates realistic human workflows across text, image, and video to supply training and evaluation datasets for AI companies developing frontier models. It runs a two-sided model, paying data contributors and selling curated datasets to frontier AI developers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Velvet Media is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Velvet Media business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Dataset Services: The company appears to generate revenue through providing datasets and evaluation services to AI companies developing frontier models. The platform allows companies to request meetings for dataset needs and submit dataset samples, suggesting a service-based or licensing model for AI training data.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels1 record
Velvet Media product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Velvet operates a unified multimodal data platform that provides datasets and evaluations for training and evaluating frontier AI models. The platform simulates how humans navigate real workflows across text, image, and video modalities, and ingests dataset samples from external contributors for review and potential inclusion in its training data offerings.
Product overview
Velvet is a unified multimodal data platform designed to bring data realism to frontier AI models. The core offering consists of the Velvet Dataset Platform, which collects and curates dataset samples across text, image, and video modalities from contributors. Users can upload dataset samples through the platform, which are then reviewed and potentially incorporated into Velvet's training data offerings for frontier AI model development.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Companies that use Velvet Media
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Velvet Media technology and API
TechnologyAPI detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability4 records
Feature1 record
Velvet Media partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves3 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Velvet Media competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Scale AI: Scale AI is the dominant AI training data and evaluation platform, serving frontier model labs with labeled datasets, RLHF, and evaluation services. It is the most direct competitor to Velvet in providing data for frontier AI model development.
- Labelbox: Labelbox provides a data-centric AI platform with labeling, evaluation, and workflow tools for ML teams. It is comparable to Velvet as a platform for curating and evaluating training data used to build AI models.
- Sama: Sama delivers high-quality annotated datasets and AI validation services for machine learning teams, including major foundation-model developers. It is a direct comparable as an AI training data provider serving enterprise model builders.
- Defined.ai: Defined.ai operates a marketplace and services platform for AI training data, including multimodal datasets. It directly parallels Velvet's marketplace-style approach to supplying data to AI developers.
- Surge AI: Surge AI is a high-quality AI training data platform focused on human-preference data and evaluation datasets for frontier models. It directly overlaps Velvet's positioning around premium data quality for frontier AI labs.
Broad incumbents
- Appen: Appen is a large, established AI data annotation vendor serving major tech companies globally. It competes in the same training-data space as Velvet but with a much broader, less specialized offering.
Emerging players
- Snorkel AI: Snorkel AI focuses on programmatic data labeling and data-centric AI development for enterprise ML teams. It overlaps with Velvet's focus on improving AI model performance through better data.
- Encord: Encord provides data curation, labeling, and evaluation tooling for multimodal AI, including vision and video. It is comparable to Velvet as a platform serving teams building multimodal AI models.
- Roboflow: Roboflow offers a computer vision data platform with annotation, dataset management, and model training tools. It is a partial comparable to Velvet's image/video modality support for AI model development.
- Datasaur: Datasaur provides NLP data labeling and LLM fine-tuning tooling for ML teams. It overlaps with Velvet on text-dataset preparation for AI model development, though with less multimodal focus.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Velvet Media social profiles
Digital presenceVelvet Media financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Velvet Media leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Velvet Media funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Velvet Media 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 Velvet Media
What does Velvet Media do?
Velvet operates a unified multimodal data platform that provides datasets and evaluations for training and evaluating frontier AI models. The platform simulates how humans navigate real workflows across text, image, and video modalities, and ingests dataset samples from external contributors for review and potential inclusion in its training data offerings.
Is Velvet Media a public or private company?
Velvet Media is a private company. It is currently operating.
When was Velvet Media founded?
Velvet Media was founded in 2025. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Velvet Media based?
Velvet Media is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Velvet Media make money?
One revenue line is on record: dataset Services.
Who are Velvet Media's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Scale AI, Labelbox, Sama, Defined.ai and Surge AI. Appen is listed as a broad incumbent. Emerging players are Snorkel AI, Encord, Roboflow and Datasaur.
Does Velvet Media have an API?
No public API is recorded for Velvet Media.