Bria, a New York and Tel Aviv-based AI startup, has secured $40 million in a Series B funding round to accelerate the development of its ethically sourced, licensed image-generation models. The investment, led by Red Dot Capital, brings the company’s total funding to approximately $65 million, positioning it as a key player in the shift toward copyright-compliant generative AI.
A Shift Away from Data Scraping
While many generative AI companies rely on massive datasets scraped from the public web—a practice currently facing intense legal scrutiny under the fair use doctrine—Bria is taking a different approach. The company, founded in 2020 by Yair Adato and Gal Jacobi, trains its models exclusively on licensed content.
Bria partners with approximately 20 entities, including Getty Images, to secure high-quality, legal training data. CEO Yair Adato explains that the platform compensates image owners programmatically based on their “overall influence,” ensuring a sustainable ecosystem for creators.
Enterprise-Ready Generative AI
Bria’s foundation models currently encompass one billion visuals and millions of videos. By training on globally representative datasets, the startup aims to mitigate the bias often found in AI-generated content. Its platform is designed for professional workflows, offering:
- Integration: Plug-ins for industry-standard tools like Photoshop and Figma.
- Customization: A fine-tuning API that allows enterprise clients to adapt models to specific brand identities.
- Data Sovereignty: Customers retain ownership of their data and model outputs, whether running on Bria’s platform or public cloud environments.
- Specialized APIs: Over 30 APIs for modifying and creating visuals, offered through subscription and usage-based pricing models.
Rapid Growth and Future Expansion
Despite market headwinds, including budget constraints and the saturation of basic AI “wrapper” applications, Bria reported a 400% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue. The company currently supports 40 enterprise customers and intends to use the new capital to scale its operations.
Adato outlined an aggressive roadmap for the 40-person startup, which plans to double its headcount by the end of the year. Key hires will focus on:
- Generative AI research for music and video expansion.
- Global sales and marketing leadership.
- Intellectual property and copyright expertise.
As the company expands into new media types, including music and text, it aims to establish a robust “IP ecosystem” that provides businesses with commercial-grade, compliant creative tools. Bria’s Series B round also saw participation from Maor Investments, Entrée Capital, GFT Ventures, Intel Capital, and IN Venture.