In January 2026, the New York-based data intelligence platform Protege announced a $30 million Series A extension led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round, which expands its previous $25 million raise, brings the company’s total funding to $65 million.
The company is led by CEO and Co-Founder Bobby Samuels and Chairman Travis May, the former CEO of Datavant and LiveRamp. Protege specializes in unlocking access to non-public, high-quality datasets across healthcare, media, and motion capture, serving as a trusted source for the majority of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants.
As AI companies face the “data wall” of exhausted public web content, Protege addresses the bottleneck by operationalizing fragmented, real-world data at scale. This shift toward licensed, high-fidelity data networks mirrors the movement in enterprise AI observability and autonomous IP management, where verified integrity is the primary competitive moat.
The new capital will be used to expand Protege’s data partner network and accelerate product development for AI-ready datasets. By providing a secure, rights-protected gateway to proprietary information, Protege is building the critical infrastructure required for the next era of reliable and specialized AI systems.
Market Signal
- The “Post-Scraping” Alpha: Protege’s $30M round validates that the era of “scraping the open web” is over. The next generation of frontier models will be defined by who has the legal and technical pipeline to proprietary, real-world human activity data.
- Founder-Infrastructure Fit: The leadership of Travis May (Datavant/LiveRamp) gives Protege a unique advantage in handling de-identified health records and complex licensing—areas where generalist startups struggle with compliance and trust.
- Institutional Data Moat: By aggregating hundreds of data partners into a single, AI-ready network, Protege is creating a “Data Clearinghouse” that prevents the fragmentation that has historically slowed down enterprise AI deployment.
Key Details
- Company: Protege
- Funding: $30M Series A Extension ($65M Total)
- Headquarters: New York, NY
- Lead Investor: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- CEO: Bobby Samuels
- Use Case: Real-world data licensing, proprietary dataset curation, and AI evaluation workflows
