Ta-da, an artificial intelligence data marketplace that uses blockchain technology to gamify the process of verifying AI data, announced Monday that it has raised $3.5 million led by Morningstar Ventures to develop and expand its operations.

The company was founded on the idea that high-quality data for AI datasets is difficult and expensive to obtain. Although data is everywhere, much of it is not in forms that can be used to train and operate AI systems because it’s not correctly categorized and organized. That takes human minds to sort it and label it, which Ta-da’s marketplace provides.

The raise saw participation from Web3 venture capital funds such as GBV Capital, XVentures, NxGen and Spark Digital Capital, as well as the layer 1 blockchain protocol MultiversX.

Ta-da works by crowdsourcing data validation through what the company calls a “gamified” Web3 app that provides cryptocurrency tokens as rewards for users who record and check voice data. This allows users to perform microtasks and be rewarded for the data that they validate. At large scale, the same technology can be used with different types of datasets including words, phrases and 2D and 3D images.

Rewarding users for their participation in small tasks over time, allows users to spend as much or as little time validating data as they like. The company also said the model helps deliver more affordable high-quality datasets than currently exist on the market.

Users can then use their cryptocurrency rewards, which come in the form of a token native to Ta-da’s app. It can be bought and sold on a crypto exchange for other cryptocurrencies or real money.

Ta-da was launched by Vivoka, a startup that gained attention for its development of AI voice technologies and speech recognition solutions. Ta-da Chief Executive William Simonin is a serial entrepreneur and his brother, Hasheur, who is also involved in the company, is the founder of Meria.com, a blockchain and Web3 infrastructure provider. The company’s advisory board also includes Luc Julia, co-creator of Apple Inc.’s Siri digital assistant, and Morningstar Ventures CEO Danilo Carlucci.

The AI data market size was estimated at $1.6 billion in 2022 according to research from The Brainy Insights. The market is expected to grow beyond $13.8 billion by 2032 as the demand for high-quality data increases. According to the report, much of the demand is from big data operations and an increasing need for training data for AI application specific processes.

The company said that it will use the new fundraise to help expand its AI marketplace and operations and will use it to support the launch of its native Web3 app. The company will hold an IDO, an “initial decentralized exchange offering,” which is a token crowdfunding method, on xLaunchpad, the launchpad of MultiversX, to bring its AI data marketplace online.

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