By Kyle Wiggers | VentureBeat | November 20, 2019
AI and machine learning algorithms require data. Lots of data. But the bulk of that data is of no use if it isn’t first labeled by human annotators. This predicament has given rise to a cottage industry of startups, including Scale AI, which recently raised $100 million for its extensive suite of data labeling services. That’s not to mention Mighty AI, Hive, Appen, and Alegion, which together occupy a data annotation tools segment that’s anticipated to be worth $1.6 billion by 2025.
CloudFactory is yet another vying for attention. It’s the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Mark Sears, who in nine years grew it from a small-time data prep solutions company to an international conglomerate with offices in the U.K., U.S., Nepal, and Kenya. (CloudFactory is headquartered in Reading.) Today the company announced that it has raised $65 million in a growth equity round that brings its total raised to $78 million.
