Perle Secures $9M to Build Transparent, Human-Powered Web3 AI Training Platform

AI startup Perle has raised $9 million in seed funding to roll out its next-generation Web3 AI data training platform, Perle Labs. Framework Ventures led the round and lifts the company’s total funding to $17.5 million, following an $8.5 million pre-seed round in October 2024 led by CoinFund. Other backers in the latest raise include Protagonist, HashKey, and Peer VC.

With the fresh capital, Perle plans to build a crypto-native platform designed to improve the way artificial intelligence models are trained. The company’s approach centers on high-quality, human-reviewed datasets, using blockchain to guarantee transparency, traceability, and decentralized ownership of AI training data.

Perle Web3 framework also introduces an incentive-based system to reward contributors worldwide for their work in refining AI data. The platform uses blockchain technology alongside advanced AI training methods to cut down on bias, boost model accuracy, and build a more open and fair environment for developing AI.

The Challenge Perle Wants to Fix

Even the best AI models sometimes struggle with rare or very specific situations. These unusual cases, called “long-tail” scenarios, don’t appear often in their training data but are crucial for getting things right in real-life use.

Perle aims to tackle this challenge by involving skilled contributors who collaborate to review, refine and verify AI training datasets. Each contribution is recorded on the blockchain creating a transparent record that reduces bias, improves accuracy and guarantees verifiable responsibility.

With a fresh $9 million in funding, the company is building a crypto-based system to train AI using high-quality, human-checked data. Its blockchain setup ensures clear data tracking, shared ownership and fair pay for contributors. This lets people worldwide help create the next wave of AI models.

Here’s How it Works

Perle Labs is building a next-generation AI training platform powered by Web3 technology, designed to make data sourcing more transparent and collaborative.

The system blends AI training infrastructure with blockchain-based incentives, creating a network where contributors are rewarded for improving data quality. Here’s how it works:

• Decentralized Data Ownership: Every contributor keeps ownership of their work with rights secured through blockchain records.
• Creator Credit: Every dataset is linked to its creator making it clear who made it and ensuring they get paid directly.
• Rewarding Contributions: Crypto rewards motivate people worldwide to share and check data.
• Varied Data Types: The platform supports audio, images, videos and text, creating richer datasets for AI training.
• Human Input for Better AI: Uses human feedback and special tools to make AI more accurate.

Pearl creates a complete AI development platform, handling everything from gathering and labeling data to testing and improving AI models. Its goal is to produce high-quality, less biased AI systems, as well as provide proper recognition and rewards to data contributors.

Focus Shifts from Bigger Models to Better Data, Says Perle CEO

Perle CEO Ahmed Rashad a former Scale AI executive, says the next wave of artificial intelligence progress will come from better data quality, not just building larger models.

As AI systems become more advanced, Rashad notes, their real test is in handling rare and complex edge case situations that don’t appear often in training but are critical for real-world performance.

Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, shares that view.

“AI’s future will be shaped by higher-quality data, not model size alone,” he said. “Perle platform is built to deliver that transparent, scalable and designed for sourcing the best possible datasets.”

The comments reflect a growing industry belief that precision and data integrity will define the next stage of AI innovation as companies race to make systems more accurate and reliable.

Perle is Creating New Opportunities

Perle is creating new opportunities for data annotators worldwide. The company’s Web3 platform lets contributors create work records on the blockchain, showing proof of their high-quality, consistent work. This helps talented reviewers gain recognition and land more projects, while providing companies with reliable, top-notch data.

Pearl’s platform could make a big difference in developing countries, where online work is booming. By clearly showing who created the data and offering fair pay, it lets skilled workers from anywhere help build AI, opening up new ways to earn money by contributing to advanced AI training.

Perle funding reflects a wider trend as venture capital increasingly backs startups that merge AI and blockchain. In July 2025, Web3 AI startup Play AI raised $4.3 million, adding to the sector’s momentum. Investors are betting that decentralization can fix AI’s long-standing problem of limited, biased, or low-quality training data and Perle is positioning itself at the center of that shift.

Perle Secures $9M for Growth

Perle says the new $9 million in seed funding will accelerate several key growth initiatives. The company plans to increase research and development to make its Web3 AI data platform fast, automated, and easily scalable.

It will also expand its global network of data contributors, opening the door for more people to participate in AI model training from anywhere in the world. Partnerships with AI companies working on advanced agentic systems and next-generation applications are also on the roadmap.

In addition, Perle will roll out new tools designed to cut bias, improve accuracy on rare “edge case” scenarios and support training across multiple data types, including text, audio, images and video.

In the long term, the startup aims to establish itself as the leading decentralized hub for AI training data. It aims to move AI development away from the control of a few large companies towards a model built on global community-driven collaboration.

Backed by Top Crypto and AI Investors and More

The Perle Web3 AI Data Platform is set to transform how AI models are trained by replacing closed centralized systems with a transparent and decentralized network. By rewarding contributors for providing quality data, the platform aims to improve accuracy, reduce bias, and create opportunities for people around the world.

Backed by top crypto and AI investors, and led by a founding team from Scale AI, Meta, MIT, and Berkeley, Pearl is establishing itself at the intersection of blockchain and advanced AI, an area that is rapidly attracting interest from the global tech and investment community.