Poseidon Secures $15M to Tackle AI’s Data Drought

- Poseidon raised $15 million in seed funding led by a16z Crypto. - The platform aims to decentralize AI training data through IP-cleared datasets. Poseidon, a San Francisco-based AI data layer company, raised $15 million in a seed funding round to address the growing scarcity of high-quality training data in artificial intelligence. On July 22, 2025, Cointelegraph reported that a16z Crypto led the round. This funding will enable Poseidon to scale its decentralized, IP-compliant infrastructure for AI datasets. Poseidon's approach centers on on-chain licensing technology, leveraging Story Protocol’s licensing infrastructure to ensure data traceability, monetization, and legal compliance. This method addresses a persistent intellectual property pain point in AI development by giving developers access to ethically sourced datasets while compensating contributors through decentralized mechanisms. According to Sandeep Chinchali, the company’s chief scientist, the limited availability of suitable training data, not computation or models, increasingly hinders AI innovation. With the new funding, Poseidon will roll out contributor modules, software development kits, and licensing tools, with early access anticipated by this summer. In addition, Poseidon is collaborating with multiple AI labs to expand its infrastructure and position itself as a critical solution to AI’s escalating data demands. As of 12:00 UTC on July 22, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,145. According to CoinMarketCap, its 24-hour trading volume had risen by 1.8%.