Snorkel AI triples valuation to $3.5B as demand for AI training data booms

随着对 AI 训练数据的需求激增，Snorkel AI 估值翻三倍至 35 亿美元

Snorkel AI, a startup that helps AI labs and corporations build training datasets and simulated environments, has raised a $350 million Series E at a $3.5 billion valuation. The new round, which was led by Insight Partners and S32, valued the seven-year-old startup at nearly triple the $1.3 billion valuation it garnered when it raised $100 million in a Series D 17 months ago. Existing investors, including Addition, Lightspeed, Greylock, GV, and Wells Fargo, also participated in the round.

Snorkel AI 是一家帮助 AI 实验室和企业构建训练数据集及模拟环境的初创公司，近日完成了 3.5 亿美元的 E 轮融资，估值达到 35 亿美元。本轮融资由 Insight Partners 和 S32 领投，这家成立七年的初创公司估值几乎是 17 个月前 D 轮融资（1 亿美元）时 13 亿美元估值的三倍。Addition、Lightspeed、Greylock、GV 和富国银行（Wells Fargo）等现有投资者也参与了本轮融资。

While Snorkel originally provided software for data-labeling automation, it shifted last year to providing customers with completed datasets, an offering it calls data-as-a-service. Rather than operating purely as a human expert marketplace, Snorkel relies on a hybrid approach, using its software and models to generate data synthetically alongside subject matter experts.

虽然 Snorkel 最初提供的是用于数据标注自动化的软件，但去年已转型为向客户提供完整的数据集，即所谓的“数据即服务”（data-as-a-service）。Snorkel 并非单纯作为人类专家市场运营，而是采用混合模式，利用其软件和模型与领域专家协作，共同生成合成数据。

Snorkel says its current annualized revenue run rate now stands at $375 million, an eighteenfold increase over the last 12 months. That growth is fueled by AI labs’ insatiable appetite for high-end training data. Other data companies positioning themselves as AI data labs have seen a similar explosion in growth. Mercor’s gross annualized revenue has climbed to $2 billion, Handshake hit the $1 billion milestone earlier this year, and TechCrunch reported that Micro1 has scaled to $500 million.

Snorkel 表示，其目前的年化收入运行率已达到 3.75 亿美元，较过去 12 个月增长了 18 倍。这种增长得益于 AI 实验室对高端训练数据的巨大需求。其他定位为 AI 数据实验室的数据公司也经历了类似的爆发式增长。Mercor 的总年化收入已攀升至 20 亿美元，Handshake 今年早些时候达到了 10 亿美元的里程碑，TechCrunch 报道称 Micro1 的规模已达到 5 亿美元。

Since these companies pay out roughly 60% to 70% of their top-line income directly to the domain specialists doing the work, it’s important to note that their actual net annual revenue is substantially lower than those headline gross figures. Given that Snorkel sells reinforcement learning (RL) environments and complete datasets rather than human labor, payments to its human experts are accounted for in its cost of goods sold rather than headline-generating annualized revenue numbers, according to the company.

由于这些公司将约 60% 到 70% 的总收入直接支付给从事相关工作的领域专家，因此需要注意的是，它们的实际年度净收入远低于这些总额数字。据 Snorkel 公司称，由于其销售的是强化学习（RL）环境和完整数据集，而非人力服务，因此支付给人类专家的费用被计入其销售成本，而不是计入用于宣传的年化收入数字中。

Snorkel launched commercially in 2019 following four years of research by co-founder and CEO Alex Ratner and his team at a Stanford AI lab.

Snorkel 在联合创始人兼首席执行官 Alex Ratner 及其团队在斯坦福大学 AI 实验室进行了四年研究后，于 2019 年正式投入商业运营。