Marty Pesis who soldVouch, a hiring platform for creators, to YouTuber MrBeast earlier thisyear has launched Troveo, a platform helping content owners, including creators, filmmakers, production companies, and others to license their content to AI companies while retaining ownership rights, with $4.5 million in seed funding.

The launch comes with financial backing from early-stage venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, founded in 2020 by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and angel investors, including Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Siqi Chen and Andreas Klinger. Troveo also said it has deals in place with prominent AI companies to pay out more than $5 million to content owners and digital rights managers by end of year.

Troveo co-founder Trent Krupp, who formerly worked for Impact, the Ron Howard- and Brian Grazer-founded LinkedIn for Hollywood crew workers, is the firms chief revenue officer.

Troveo outlined its positioning in the fast-emerging AI space this way: Lawmakers are years behind in their understanding and regulation of the industry, resulting in a lawless system where AI companies can scrape data from the internet without compensation to that datas rightful owner. Content owners are among the industries most impacted by this because they can spend more than $1 million on one video without any compensation from AI companies.

Troveo founder and CEO Marty Pesis Courtesy of Troveo Said Troveo founder and CEO Pesis: AI companies have been seen as adversaries to the creative industry, but we believe theres a better path forward. Were enabling creators to work side-by-side with AI companies in a way that ensures they are fairly compensated for their contributions.

The companys platform allows firms to upload their content and then get licensing deals and revenue from AI companies interested in training off their data, meaning using data to train their machine learning models, it outlined its approach. Troveo always puts the content owners first, allowing them to retain full ownership rights, and an ability to license their content an unlimited number of times.

Ohanian said: Theres significant traction in the data training space. Creatives are looking for more revenue streams, and AI companies are seeking quality data.

Pesis first company SociaLink, which he sold in 2017, helped celebrities build audiences and launch products. In 2018, he joined the celebrity video greetings service Cameo. Most recently, Pesis founded Vouch and sold it to MrBeast.

Troveo co-founder and chief revenue officer Trent Krupp Courtesy of Troveo