Cashmere
Cashmere is a data infrastructure platform that connects premium content publishers with AI companies, providing token-level access control, license enforcement at inference time, usage tracking, and revenue settlement through its Fiber, Connect, and Omnipub products.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- HeadquartersSalt Lake City, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Cashmere does
Cashmere (legal entity Vandal AI, Inc., dba Cashmere Publishing) is a Salt Lake City-based data infrastructure platform founded in 2025 that connects premium content publishers with AI companies through a token-level content licensing API. Its three core products are Fiber, a license-aware AI search gateway that enforces publisher-defined access rules on every query at inference time; Connect, a turnkey AI suite handling authentication, licensing, payments, and content delivery so publishers can launch AI products without building backend infrastructure; and Omnipub, the underlying engine providing token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement. The platform hosts 10M+ documents and approximately 8B tokens, supports retrieval-augmented generation workflows, and contributes to the Content Telemetry open standard via the SPUR Coalition.
Cashmere serves two customer segments on a two-sided marketplace: publishers (academic, professional, trade, market intelligence, and increasingly healthcare and life sciences) who need infrastructure to control, track, and monetize AI access to their content, and AI platforms (with Perplexity as the first publicly announced client) that require licensed, high-quality source material. Business model is hybrid: publishers subscribe on tiered plans (Basic, Advanced/Premium, Enterprise) for content AI-readiness, AI platforms pay usage-based fees per token of content accessed, and Cashmere takes a revenue share on settled transactions. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales, an API-first developer motion, and channel partnerships through publisher-services platforms such as KGL.
The company has raised a pre-seed round (May 2025, Perplexity Fund and F7 Ventures) and a $5M seed round (January 2026, led by Reach Capital with strategic investment from Ingram Content Group, Naver Corp/NAVER D2SF, and Pearson). Its roughly 9-10 person team, anchored by co-founders Jonathan Munk (CEO), Wyatt Grantham (CTO), and Jonathan Woahn (CXO), added Sue Hodgson as VP of Strategic Partnerships in February 2026, bringing 5,000+ publisher relationships from her prior role at Perlego. Named enterprise customers include Wiley and Perplexity, with additional partnerships covering KGL, Springer Publishing, Rockefeller University Press, and Charlesworth Group (the latter extending into the Chinese market). The platform holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance.
Cashmere firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cashmere
- Legal name
- Vandal AI, Inc.
- Website
- https://cashmere.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Cashmere is a data infrastructure platform that connects premium content publishers with AI companies, providing token-level access control, license enforcement at inference time, usage tracking, and revenue settlement through its Fiber, Connect, and Omnipub products.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cashmere industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Content Licensing Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- akta.pro primary industry
- End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management) (HDAEANAA)
Keywords
Where Cashmere is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Salt Lake City
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Cashmere business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- API-Based Content Licensing: Publishers license their content through Cashmere's API to AI companies, with usage-based billing tracking every access event. Revenue is generated through token consumption fees where AI platforms pay per token of content accessed.
- Publisher Subscription Plans: Publishers subscribe to Cashmere's platform (Basic, Advanced/Premium, Enterprise tiers) to get content AI-ready, with minimum guarantees and revenue share arrangements. Publishers pay platform fees and receive revenue from AI platform usage.
- Revenue Settlement: Cashmere handles revenue settlement between publishers and AI companies — tracking every content access and distributing revenue per the publisher's terms. Publishers receive revenue share from content accessed by AI platforms.
- Enterprise Custom Agreements: For large-scale usage (corporations integrating the API into products, universities licensing for text and data mining at scale), custom agreements involve minimum subscription terms, volume-based pricing, or particular rights.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Basic Tier - Limited access for evaluation and academic research |
| Subscription | Monthly | Advanced/Premium Tier - Comprehensive content access with higher limits |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise/Customized Tier - Large-scale custom agreements |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Publisher Revenue Share Model |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Cashmere product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cashmere operates a Content Licensing API Platform that enables premium publishers to license, monitor, and monetize their content within AI systems while giving AI companies governed access to authoritative source material. The platform delivers this through three core products: Fiber (license-aware AI search gateway), Connect (turnkey AI suite for publisher AI products), and Omnipub (underlying token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement infrastructure).
Product overview
Cashmere operates as a data infrastructure platform connecting premium content publishers with AI companies. The platform consists of three core products: Fiber (license-aware AI search gateway for controlling content discovery), Connect (turnkey AI suite handling authentication, licensing, payments, and delivery), and Omnipub (underlying infrastructure providing token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement). Additional features include Cashmere Identity for authentication, Cashmere Passport for credential management, Cashmere Commerce for monetization, and Cashmere Sync for entitlement synchronization. Both Fiber and Connect include Security & Compliance, Entitlement Controls, AI License Rights, Content Management, Omnipub Conversions, and Detailed Reporting capabilities. The platform enables publishers to license, monitor, and monetize their content within AI systems while providing AI companies access to authoritative, licensed content.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Cashmere Fiber License-aware AI search gateway that lets premium publishers make their catalog discoverable to AI platforms while maintaining full control; checks licenses and enforces publisher rules on every single query, routing AI platforms and agents through a licensed discovery gateway with governed access and monetized content delivery.
- Cashmere Connect Turnkey AI suite for premium publishers that provides authentication, licensing, payments, and content delivery without requiring publishers to build backend infrastructure, enabling launch of branded AI products or addition of AI capabilities to existing content subscriptions.
- Cashmere Omnipub Underlying infrastructure powering Cashmere's data licensing platform, providing token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement capabilities that enable publishers to convert content into AI-ready assets that can be monetized and protected at scale.
Quantifiable outcome
- Wiley moved content to AI-ready state at pace and scale, unlocking new possibilities for customers and partners
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Cashmere
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Cashmere technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability3 records
Feature7 records
Cashmere partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Rockefeller University PresscoreRockefeller University Press and Cashmere partnered to bring authoritative life sciences research to AI applications. The partnership enables Cashmere to offer premium scientific journal content from Rockefeller University Press to AI platforms.
- Charlesworth GroupcoreCashmere and Charlesworth Group announced a partnership to bring publishers' premium content to China's AI market. Charlesworth Group provides editorial, production, and technology services, extending Cashmere's reach into the Chinese market.
- Springer Publishing CompanycoreSpringer Publishing Company and Cashmere announced a partnership to manage and license healthcare education content for AI systems, ensuring responsible use and governance. The partnership allows Springer Publishing to extend its trusted content into AI while maintaining control over its application.
- KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL)coreCashmere and KGL announced a strategic partnership integrating Cashmere's AI infrastructure with KGL's publisher platform. The integration provides token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement for publishers, enabling them to protect IP and unlock new revenue streams in the AI economy. The partnership is available to KGL's customers immediately.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Cashmere competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- ProRata: ProRata builds attribution and revenue-share infrastructure for AI-generated content, aiming to fairly compensate source publishers and creators. Overlaps with Cashmere's revenue settlement and usage-tracking functionality, though ProRata focuses on generative outputs attribution while Cashmere focuses on inference-time access control.
- Bria: Bria provides licensed visual content and APIs for generative AI, with built-in rights management and indemnification for AI developers. Comparable to Cashmere as a content-licensing API for AI, but focused on images/visual media rather than text/publishing.
- Source Media Partners: Source Media Partners operates in the publisher-AI licensing space, representing publishers in negotiations with AI companies. It overlaps with Cashmere in addressing publisher monetization of AI access, though it takes an agency/representation model rather than an API infrastructure model.
Direct peers
- TollBit: TollBit provides bot detection and content monetization infrastructure that lets publishers track, rate-limit, and charge AI crawlers and applications. Both Cashmere and TollBit sit at the intersection of publisher content protection and AI licensing economics, though TollBit is bot-detection-led while Cashmere is API-led.
- Created by Humans: Created by Humans operates a content licensing marketplace specifically designed to enable publishers and creators to license content to AI companies. Both platforms address the same core problem — monetizing premium content for AI training and inference — making them the most directly comparable peer.
Broad incumbents
- Shutterstock: Shutterstock has signed broad licensing deals with AI labs (including OpenAI, Meta, and others) and operates its own AI tools. Comparable to Cashmere as a stock-media content licensor to AI, but at a vastly larger scale and as an incumbent rights holder rather than an infrastructure layer.
- Getty Images: Getty Images has been one of the most aggressive stock media companies in licensing content for AI training and has sued Stability AI over unlicensed use. Comparable to Cashmere in monetizing licensed content for AI, but operates as a massive incumbent stock library with its own AI offerings rather than as third-party infrastructure.
Others
- Databricks: Databricks provides data and AI platform infrastructure with capabilities around governed data access and model serving. Adjacent to Cashmere's infrastructure role, but oriented toward enterprise data/ML rather than publisher content licensing.
- Snowflake: Snowflake provides cloud data platform infrastructure with secure data sharing, which could in principle host publisher content for AI access. Indirectly comparable to Cashmere as data infrastructure providers serving content workflows, though Snowflake is a general-purpose data cloud rather than a publisher-AI specific platform.
- Originality.ai: Originality.ai provides AI content detection and is expanding into content licensing/usage analytics. Adjacent to Cashmere's telemetry and usage-tracking capabilities, but focused on plagiarism and AI-generated content detection rather than publisher monetization.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Cashmere social profiles
Digital presenceCashmere compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Cashmere financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cashmere leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
Cashmere funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cashmere 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 Cashmere
What does Cashmere do?
Cashmere operates a Content Licensing API Platform that enables premium publishers to license, monitor, and monetize their content within AI systems while giving AI companies governed access to authoritative source material. The platform delivers this through three core products: Fiber (license-aware AI search gateway), Connect (turnkey AI suite for publisher AI products), and Omnipub (underlying token-level access control, rights management, usage tracking, and revenue settlement infrastructure).
Is Cashmere a public or private company?
Cashmere is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Cashmere founded?
Cashmere was founded in 2025. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Cashmere based?
Cashmere is headquartered in Salt Lake City, United States, in the North America region.
How does Cashmere make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. API-Based Content Licensing is the primary driver. The others are publisher Subscription Plans, revenue Settlement and enterprise Custom Agreements.
Who are Cashmere's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are ProRata, Bria and Source Media Partners. Direct peers are TollBit and Created by Humans. Broad incumbents are Shutterstock and Getty Images. Others are Databricks, Snowflake and Originality.ai.
Does Cashmere have an API?
Yes. Cashmere operates a Content Licensing API Platform that enables approved developers, organizations, and applications (Consumers) to access licensed textual and multimedia content provided by third-party publishers. The API allows Consumers to query, search, and retrieve Content for their Licensed Use. Access requires account registration and API credentials (API key or client ID/secret). The platform offers tiered access levels including Basic Tier (limited content, strict rate limits, for evaluation or academic research), Advanced/Premium Tier (comprehensive content access, higher rate limits, bulk data endpoints), and Enterprise/Customized Tier (large-scale use with custom agreements, volume-based pricing). The API is documented at docs.cashmere.io. The platform monitors API requests and usage volumes for rate limiting and compliance purposes. Developer documentation is at docs.cashmere.io.
What industry is Cashmere in?
Cashmere's product category is AI Content Licensing Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEANAA, End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management). Its NAICS code is 518.