Protege review: the best AI data company for licensed real-world data?

Answer in brief: Protege is #2 in our data-sourcing ranking and our top pick for licensed, non-public data. It aggregates private and proprietary datasets from hundreds of data partners, curates them for AI training and evaluation, and pays partners a revenue share each time their data is used. It suits labs that have exhausted the public web. There is no public price list.

At a glance: Data-sourcing rank #2 of 14 · Segment: data licensing and brokers · Best for: health, media, audio, motion and spatial data · Pricing: custom.

What Protege does for AI data buyers

Protege licenses data from trusted providers and helps curate, create and optimize datasets for specific AI uses: media, audio, motion capture, de-identified health records and medical imaging. In October 2026 it launched independent evaluations of how healthcare AI performs on real patient cases.

Who it fits

Frontier labs needing proprietary data unavailable on the open web, healthcare AI teams, and physical and spatial AI builders. Small teams wanting instant self-serve purchases should look at Defined.ai or Bright Data.

Why buyers shortlist it

• Data you cannot scrape, from hundreds of partner organizations.
• Serious backing. A $30M round led by Andreessen Horowitz on January 8, 2026, bringing total funding to $65M since its 2024 founding.
• Big-tech traction. It says it works with the majority of the Magnificent Seven (unnamed).
• A growing 2026 catalog. Partnerships with VLGE AI, ALLSIDES 3D digital twins, Dailymotion's multilingual video library and GrabMaps Southeast Asian street data.
• Experienced leadership. Co-founder Travis May previously led Datavant and LiveRamp.

Honest drawbacks

• No public pricing or rate card.
• Big-tech customers are not named.
• Rights vary by partner, so confirm permitted uses, term and exclusivity per dataset.
• It is a young company, founded in 2024.

Pricing model

Custom licensing. Data partners receive revenue share each time their data is used.

Best alternatives

• Defined.ai: an open marketplace for licensed datasets.
• Snowflake Marketplace: governed commercial data.
• Databricks Marketplace: cross-cloud data and model sharing.

FAQ

What data does Protege sell?

Licensed real-world data including media, audio, motion capture, de-identified health records, medical imaging, video and spatial data.

How much funding has Protege raised?

$65M in total, including a $30M round led by a16z announced January 8, 2026.

Can I sell my company's data through Protege?

Yes. Protege licenses data from partners and pays revenue share each time it is used.

Sources

• Protege: $30M round led by a16z (January 8, 2026)
• Protege articles and partnership announcements

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