Vermillio, the AI licensing and protection platform, announced today that it has raised $16 million in Series A funding, led by Sony Music Entertainment and DNS Capital. Vermillio will leverage the funds to scale operations and continue building out solutions for a generative AI internet that enables talent, studios, record labels, and more to protect and monetize their content.
“We are setting a new standard for AI licensing—one that proactively enables consent, credit, and compensation for innovative opportunities,” said Dan Neely, Co-Founder & CEO of Vermillio. “With the support of an innovation leader like Sony Music, Vermillio will continue building our products that ensure generative AI is utilized ethically and securely. At this critical moment in determining the future of AI and how to hold platforms accountable, we are proud to protect the world’s most beloved content and talent.”
Projected by both Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs to deliver over $1 trillion by 2026, the world of Generative AI has arrived. Vermillio is the first AI platform that securely licenses IP and allows IP holders and talent to safely engage with generative AI technologies. Providing cutting-edge protection and third-party attribution, Vermillio’s TraceIDTM enables talent and IP holders to take advantage of the benefits of Generative AI with secure control of their data and AI rights. TraceIDTM offers the ability to manage terms, conditions, and usage rights while capitalizing on new revenue streams made possible with Generative AI.
“Sony Music is focused on developing responsible generative AI use cases that enhance the creativity and goals of our talent, protect their work, excite fans, and create new commercial possibilities,” said Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business, Sony Music Entertainment. “Dan Neely and the team at Vermillio share our vision that prioritizing proper consent, clear attribution and appropriate compensation for professional creators is foundational to unlocking monetization opportunities in this space. We look forward to expanding our successful collaboration with them as we work to support the growth of trusted platforms by enabling secure AI solutions that are mutually beneficial for technology innovators, artists and rightsholders.”
With the new investment, Vermillio will continue to protect leading talent, record labels, and studios. Last year, Vermillio announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with talent agency WME to shield their clients from IP theft and deliver opportunities to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL) by securely licensing their data. To demonstrate the unique opportunity that authenticated AI with TraceIDTM presents, Vermillio launched a Spider-Verse AI engine with Sony Pictures where fans created their own unique digital version of themselves in the animation style of the Spider-Verse artists. Each of the 1.5 million unique fan creations was tracked using TraceID and with the ability to trace back to the filmmakers’ source IP. Alongside Sony Music and Legacy Recordings, Vermillio then collaborated with The Orb and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd to develop a project where fans “remixed” their album and created original artwork. Each of these partnerships are rooted in the seamless and secure control of TraceID.
The Vermillio team designed TracelDTM to eliminate key concerns around consent, credit, and compensation with Generative AI. TraceID’s extensive offerings include IP and NIL content monitoring and reporting, alerts and takedowns, lost revenue management, IP and NIL asset preparation for AI licensing, auditing of authorized AI licenses, and payment management. With its co-founders collaborating for over a decade in the space, the company brings together over a century of combined AI expertise. Vermillio Co-Founder & CEO Dan Neely, who recently made TIME’s list of 100 most influential individuals in AI, is advancing major conversations about AI around the world. He provided instrumental guidance for the introduction of the landmark NO FAKES Act.
