DATA Network (The DATA Foundation)
Category: AI Infrastructure
The DATA Foundation (formerly Story Protocol) operates DATA Network, an onchain protocol and registry (Trace) providing verifiable provenance, licensing and consent for human-contributed AI training data. DATA Network (The DATA Foundation) was founded in 2022. The company is led by Andrea Muttoni. Based in Palo Alto, CA, USA. Team size: 101-500. Total funding raised: $164M. Latest round: Strategic Investment. Key investors include a16z crypto (Andreessen Horowitz), Polychain Capital, Hashed, Samsung NEXT, Mirana, dao5, Endeavor, Berggruen Holdings, Two Small Fish Ventures, Sui Foundation.
- Founded
- 2022
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Team size
- 101-500
- Total funding
- $164M
Value proposition
A single place for AI labs to source real-world, rights-cleared training data with cryptographic provenance, consent and licensing records — addressing the EU AI Act and training-data litigation compliance requirements.
Products and solutions
DATA Network (L1 protocol, migrating natively to Sui), Trace (public audit/search registry for AI training data provenance), Poseidon (AI data processing/cleaning/scoring), Numo (contributor app paying stablecoins for authenticated data), Kled (largest opt-in human-data marketplace, 1.5B+ records), Confidential Data Rails (gated access to confidential data)
Unique value
Onchain, tamper-proof provenance receipts for AI training data (Trace registry) combined with the largest opt-in human-data marketplace (Kled, 1.5B+ records), settling payments to contributors and giving labs audit-ready compliance.
Target customer
Frontier AI labs, robotics companies, governments, research institutions, and data-contributing apps/developers
Industries served
AI training data / data provenance, Web3 infrastructure, AI model development, robotics
Technology advantage
Blockchain-based immutable provenance ledger (Trace) producing cryptographic receipts (content hash, consent terms, licensing, payment proof, timestamps) without exposing underlying data; integration with Walrus storage layer and Sui for sub-second settlement; largest opt-in human data marketplace (Kled) as supply moat; EU AI Act conformity tooling
How they differentiate
Unlike general data marketplaces, DATA Network combines an onchain provenance/audit registry (Trace) with the largest opt-in human-data marketplace (Kled, 1.5B+ records) and EU AI Act conformity tooling — providing cryptographic, regulator-ready receipts rather than just data access.
Main competitors
Vana, Sahara AI, Numbers Protocol
Key partnerships
Sui Foundation ($30M strategic investment + migration to Sui), Walrus (default storage layer), Mysten Labs (Sui/Walrus contributor), Kled AI (data marketplace integration), Poseidon/Numo, Oto, Miso
Notable customers
Frontier AI labs and robotics companies (unnamed), Kled, Numo, Oto as data-supplying applications
Major milestones
2022 founded as Story Protocol (PIP Labs), May 2023 $29.3M seed, Sep 2023 $25M Series A, Aug 2024 $80M Series B at ~$2.25B valuation, Feb 2026 token unlock delay, Jun 2026 rebranded to The DATA Foundation, launched Trace registry, Oct 2026 $30M Sui Foundation investment and migration to Sui, retiring independent chain
Growth metrics
277M+ receipts on protocol; 532.4K contributors; 390 TB data audited; Kled 1.5B+ records uploaded, 5M+ new uploads/day; Trace 250M+ contributions registered, 3M+ receipts/day
Market positioning
Positioned as the world's largest AI data network for human-contributed, rights-cleared training data; pivoted from general IP/creator-economy blockchain (Story Protocol) to AI training-data provenance infrastructure.
Geographic focus
Global (US HQ, global data contributors and AI lab customers)
About Andrea Muttoni
Ex-Head of Developer Relations at Flow (Dapper Labs); Ex-Principal Technical Evangelist at Amazon; President/CPO at Story Foundation. UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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Official website: https://datafdn.org