HomeOrigin Lab Raises $8M to Help Game Firms Sell Data to World-Model Builders
As artificial intelligence moves into the physical realm, specialized labs are developing world models designed to control robotics or simulate physical objects. Without the abundant datasets available for large language models, these organizations are racing to gather the training data they need.
A new startup is tapping into an unexpected resource: the video game sector.
Origin Lab, which recently secured $8 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Ventures, operates on this concept. The round also included participation from SV Angel, Eniac, Seven Stars, and FPV, along with angel investments from Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Cruise founder Kyle Vogt.
“Current AI systems must grasp physical dynamics and object movement,” co-CEO and co-founder Anne-Margot Rodde explained to TechCrunch. “That information is already embedded in video games.”
Origin Lab functions as a marketplace, enabling world-model developers like Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs or Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs to purchase high-quality, licensed data. Meanwhile, game studios can monetize existing digital assets. Origin Lab transforms these assets into usable training formats, ranging from simple rendering outputs to automated walkthroughs.
“We realized the video game industry held valuable data, but lacked the infrastructure to connect AI labs with game developers,” Rodde stated. “We built that connection.”
While labs have long sought video game footage, licensing and quality hurdles have persisted. In late 2024, OpenAI faced backlash when its Sora model appeared to reproduce footage from popular games and Twitch streams, suggesting it was trained on such content. Amazon has also openly discussed using Twitch footage for model training.
Origin Lab’s fundraising success highlights a expanding market for both training data and startups acting as critical suppliers to major AI labs. Faraz Fatemi, a Lightspeed partner who led the investment, noted that the success of companies like Scale.AI makes this opportunity undeniable.
“We’ve observed how rapidly data vendors serving major labs can scale revenue,” Fatemi told TechCrunch. “These are well-funded enterprises, and data remains their primary bottleneck.”
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As artificial intelligence moves into the physical realm, specialized labs are developing world models designed to control robotics or simulate physical objects. Without the abundant datasets available for large language models, these organizations are racing to gather the training data they need.
A new startup is tapping into an unexpected resource: the video game sector.
Origin Lab, which recently secured $8 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Ventures, operates on this concept. The round also included participation from SV Angel, Eniac, Seven Stars, and FPV, along with angel investments from Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Cruise founder Kyle Vogt.
“Current AI systems must grasp physical dynamics and object movement,” co-CEO and co-founder Anne-Margot Rodde explained to TechCrunch. “That information is already embedded in video games.”
Origin Lab functions as a marketplace, enabling world-model developers like Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs or Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs to purchase high-quality, licensed data. Meanwhile, game studios can monetize existing digital assets. Origin Lab transforms these assets into usable training formats, ranging from simple rendering outputs to automated walkthroughs.
“We realized the video game industry held valuable data, but lacked the infrastructure to connect AI labs with game developers,” Rodde stated. “We built that connection.”
While labs have long sought video game footage, licensing and quality hurdles have persisted. In late 2024, OpenAI faced backlash when its Sora model appeared to reproduce footage from popular games and Twitch streams, suggesting it was trained on such content. Amazon has also openly discussed using Twitch footage for model training.
Origin Lab’s fundraising success highlights a expanding market for both training data and startups acting as critical suppliers to major AI labs. Faraz Fatemi, a Lightspeed partner who led the investment, noted that the success of companies like Scale.AI makes this opportunity undeniable.
“We’ve observed how rapidly data vendors serving major labs can scale revenue,” Fatemi told TechCrunch. “These are well-funded enterprises, and data remains their primary bottleneck.”
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