Protege, a platform enabling secure exchange of proprietary data for AI training, announced on August 13, 2025, the closing of a $25 million Series A funding round led by Footwork, with participation from CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, Shaper Capital, and Liquid 2 Ventures.
Protege tackles the critical challenge of accessing high-quality training data, a major barrier to AI progress. “Access to the right training data continues to be the biggest bottleneck to AI’s progress,” said CEO Bobby Samuels. The platform enables secure, governed data sharing, generating tens of millions in revenue for its 100+ data partners across healthcare and media.
Protege’s catalog includes over 300,000 hours of video, 500,000 hours of audio, billions of clinical notes, and hundreds of millions of medical images, supporting AI developers in building effective models. Recent launches of Audio & Speech and Motion Capture verticals expand its reach.
Founded by Bobby Samuels, Travis May, Engy Ziedan, and Richard Ho, Protege connects data owners with AI developers. “The richest data in the world…sits in proprietary data sets,” said May, emphasizing the opportunity to accelerate AI development through secure data access.
With a 20x growth in 2025, Protege will use the funding to deepen product investments and expand partnerships. “Protege’s platform will be critical to doing so safely and at scale,” said Nikhil Basu Trivedi of Footwork.
Protege is the platform for AI training data, enabling seamless and compliant data exchange. By empowering data holders and connecting them with AI developers, Protege supports the creation of thoughtful AI solutions.
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