Our Story

From research lab to global platform

AnnotRift was founded in 2021 by a team of ML researchers who experienced firsthand the bottleneck of data quality in AI development. After spending months building internal annotation tools at a leading AI lab, they realized the industry needed a dedicated platform that combined expert human judgment with scalable infrastructure.

Today, AnnotRift powers training data pipelines for over 200 enterprise AI teams across healthcare, autonomous driving, financial services, and frontier AI research. Our global network of 1.5 million domain experts delivers billions of high-quality labels annually.

We're backed by $180M in funding from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator, and we're headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Singapore, and Nairobi.

2021
Founded
450+
Employees
$180M
Total funding
200+
Enterprise customers
1.5M+
Expert annotators
4
Global offices
Our Values

What drives us every day

These principles guide every decision we make — from how we build our platform to how we treat our annotator community.

🎯

Quality is non-negotiable

We never compromise on data quality. Every label, every preference ranking, every evaluation is held to the highest standard because your models depend on it.

🌍

Global by design

AI serves everyone, so our data must represent everyone. We invest in diverse annotator communities across 40+ countries and 80+ languages.

🤝

Fair work, fair pay

Our annotators are skilled professionals, not gig workers. We pay above-market rates, provide benefits, and invest in ongoing training and career development.

🔬

Research-driven

We publish our methodology, contribute to open-source tools, and collaborate with academic institutions to advance the science of data quality.

🛡️

Trust through transparency

We're transparent about our processes, pricing, and limitations. Our customers trust us with their most sensitive data because we've earned that trust.

Speed without shortcuts

We move fast because AI development demands it — but never at the expense of quality. Our infrastructure enables both speed and precision.

Leadership

Meet our team

Experienced leaders from AI research, enterprise software, and global operations.

AK
Dr. Aisha Kapoor
Co-founder & CEO
MW
Marcus Williams
Co-founder & CTO
LC
Dr. Lin Chen
VP of Research
SO
Sarah Okonkwo
VP of Operations
RN
Raj Nakamura
VP of Engineering
EM
Elena Martinez
VP of Sales
DT
David Thompson
CFO
YL
Dr. Yuki Larsson
Head of AI Safety
Backed By

Investors who believe in data quality

Sequoia Capital
Andreessen Horowitz
Y Combinator
Coatue
Tiger Global
Our Journey

Key milestones

2021

Founded in San Francisco

Three ML researchers leave a leading AI lab to solve the data quality bottleneck. Accepted into Y Combinator W21 batch.

2022

Series A — $28M

Led by Sequoia Capital. Launched data labeling platform and grew to 50 enterprise customers. Opened Nairobi operations center.

2023

RLHF product launch

Launched RLHF data services as demand for alignment data exploded. Grew annotator network to 500K. Published first research papers.

2024

Series B — $72M

Led by Andreessen Horowitz. Launched evaluation and synthetic data products. Opened London and Singapore offices. 150+ enterprise customers.

2025

Series C — $80M

Reached 1.5M annotators across 40+ countries. Achieved SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 certifications. 200+ enterprise customers.

2026

The data engine for frontier AI

Powering training data for the world's leading AI organizations. 2.8B+ labels delivered. Expanding into government and defense sectors.

Our Community

Investing in our annotator workforce

Our annotators are skilled professionals, not gig workers. We invest in their success because quality data requires quality people.

💰

Above-market compensation

We pay 2-3x local market rates for annotation work. Our annotators earn a living wage with predictable income and timely payments.

📚

Training & development

Comprehensive onboarding, ongoing skill development, and career advancement pathways. Many annotators progress to QA and team lead roles.

Benefits & support

Health insurance, mental health support, flexible scheduling, and community programs. We treat our workforce with dignity and respect.

$18.50
Average hourly rate (US equivalent)
98.7%
Annotator retention rate
4.8/5
Workforce satisfaction score
40+
Countries represented

Join us in building the future of AI data

We're hiring across engineering, research, operations, and sales. Come build something meaningful.

View open roles Contact us