London based AI training specialist strengthens US presence via £25m funding

Prolific, a London based scale-up founded to transform research by providing quick and easy access to verified and fairly paid participants, today announced it has raised £25m in a round co-led by global tech investment specialist Partech and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE).

The company has seen strong demand for its technology platform from organisations looking to use human insights and feedback to improve and train their AI models. This builds on the existing use of Prolific by academic and commercial researchers around the world to connect with a large and unrivalled pool of vetted respondents.

The new funding will help Prolific broaden its AI offerings and establish a stronger presence in the United States, home to over half of its current customer base, including industry giants like Google and prestigious institutions such as Stanford University. Prolific’s UK and European clients include the University of Oxford, King’s College London, and more.

Prolific was founded in 2014 out of a frustration with how hard it was to find ‘reliable and genuine’ participants for online research. Existing tools were said to be slow, expensive and participants were not always who they said they were.

Prolific set out to change this and built a sophisticated research infrastructure applying technology to the sourcing, pre screening, vetting, and paying of participants, as well as integrating research tools. Today, Prolific offers convenient access to over 120,000 active participants, enabling insights to be gathered swiftly from diverse and specialised groups.

As AI models and applications grow exponentially, the source of the data used to build and train these systems becomes incredibly important and feeds into issues emerging around accuracy, bias, and copyright. Prolific’s platform matches AI developers with engaged and verified people to help improve and fine tune their AI applications.

The Series A funding will help Prolific further develop its AI proposition, including by further building highly specialised research groups which will be accessible via its platform. For instance, software developers (accessible via Prolific) can provide feedback on code generated by AI, improving its capabilities.

Phelim Bradley, CEO and co-founder, Prolific, comments: “I’m incredibly proud of what Prolific has achieved already. Our platform is providing trusted insights to enable world changing research, and we’re excited to bring these advantages to new markets.

“AI represents one of the biggest leaps forward in technology in recent years and our unique approach to data sourcing from humans positions us to make these systems more accountable and less biased.

“The funding we have secured will fuel our growth in the AI space, especially in the US, bolstering our commitment to human-guided AI development during this pivotal moment in the technology’s progression.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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