Troveo, a new content licensing platform, has launched with $4.5 million in seed funding to facilitate payments between AI companies and content creators. 

The platform enables content creators, filmmakers, and production companies to license their work for AI training while maintaining ownership rights.

The seed round is led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with participation from angel investors, including Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Siqi Chen, and Andreas Klinger.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Troveo has secured agreements with AI firms to distribute more than $5 million to content owners and digital rights managers by the end of 2024.

“AI companies have been seen as adversaries to the creative industry, but we believe there’s a better path forward,” Marty Pesis, Troveo’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We’re enabling creators to work side-by-side with AI companies in a way that ensures they are fairly compensated for their contributions.”

Pesis previously founded Vouch, a hiring platform for creators recently acquired by YouTuber MrBeast. The company’s leadership team includes Chief Revenue Officer Trent Krupp, formerly of Impact, the Hollywood crew networking platform founded by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

Troveo positions itself as a solution for content owners who can invest more than $1 million in a single video without receiving compensation when AI companies use their content for training purposes.

A recent investigation revealed that major tech companies had used content from thousands of YouTube videos to train AI models without creators’ knowledge or consent. Subtitles from 173,536 YouTube videos, sourced from over 48,000 channels, were utilized by prominent tech firms, including Anthropic, Nvidia, Apple, and Salesforce.

As a result, YouTuber David Millette filed a class action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging unauthorized use of video content for AI training. 

According to a YouTube report, 92% of creators use AI tools, with 74% reporting a great deal or fair amount of knowledge about the technology. Despite this high adoption rate, 90% of creators feel they are not using AI to its fullest extent, suggesting room for growth and education.