AI data classification company Handshake is buying Cleanlab, an acquisition target of several other companies

AI data classification startup Handshake has acquired data auditing startup Cleanlab, the companies tell TechCrunch.

Handshake started in 2013 as a platform to hire college graduates, and launched a human data labeling company about a year ago to serve AI prototype companies. Cleanlab, founded in 2021, is a startup that provides software to improve the quality of data produced by human labelers.

The purpose of the transaction is primarily to acquire talent, also known as acquisition, and add nine key Cleanlab employees to Handshake’s research organization. This includes the startup’s co-founders, who earned PhDs in computer science from MIT: Curtis Northcutt (pictured above), Jonas Müller, and Anish Athale. Terms of the deal were not disclosed (although as previously mentioned, Sometimes renting can be surprisingly profitable For founders.)

Cleanlab has raised a total of $30 million from investors, including Menlo Ventures, TQ Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Databricks Ventures. At its peak, the startup had more than 30 employees.

Cleanlab researchers are experts in developing algorithms that identify invalid data without a second human reviewer. The goal is to improve the quality of data Handshake produces for AI labs.

“We have an internal research team that thinks a lot about where our models are weak, and what data should we produce? How good is that data?” Sahil Bhaiwala, chief strategy and innovation officer at Handshake, told TechCrunch. “The Cleanlab team has been focused on this problem for years.”

Northcutt, the Cleanlab CEO who is credited with pioneering automated auditing for data classification, said the company has received acquisition interest from other companies working in the AI ​​data classification space. But the startup chose to sell to Handshake because, he said, competitors in the data classification space, including Mercor, Surge, and Scale AI, frequently use the Handshake platform to source human experts like doctors, lawyers, and scientists for their own data classification projects.

“If you’re going to pick one, you should probably pick the source, not the medium,” Northcutt told TechCrunch.

Handshake, which was last valued at $3.3 billion in 2022, is expected to end 2025 at $300 million in annual revenue run rate (ARR) and is now… It is said It’s on track to reach an ARR of “hundreds of millions” this year. The company provided data to eight of the top AI labs, including OpenAI.