"We Got Funded!" Data Guardians Network Raises US$5 Million to Build the Future of Ethical AI

Entrepreneur

2 days ago

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Data Guardians Network (D-GN), a decentralized platform transforming global human input into highly accurate, ethically sourced frontier training data for AI, has closed a US$5 million pre-seed round led by Saudi businessman Hamoud Al-Rumayyan, Web3 infrastructure leader droppGroup and veteran crypto firm Hub Culture.
The investment fuels D-GN's emergence from stealth and accelerates its global rollout, scaling contributor operations, multimodal data pipelines and enterprise integrations worldwide.
D-GN enables enterprises to build trustworthy AI by sourcing diverse, human-created and -labelled frontier datasets through a decentralized contributor model. Users around the world complete data annotation tasks - such as image classification, voice tagging, lip syncing and human-emotion mapping - through a gamified experience, and earn Tether's USDT stablecoin for their data annotation work. D-GN empowers users across the world with alternative income models. Thanks to this global network of users, the resulting AI dataset is more accurate, diverse, and regulation-ready.
Johanna Cabildo, Founder and CEO of D-GN, comments, "The truth is, today's AI isn't intelligent, it's predictive. What's missing is context, consciousness and credibility. Data Guardians Network exists to fill that gap. We're building the intelligence layer of the AI economy, a system grounded in real human input, ethical provenance and data you can trust. If AI is the engine, we're the compass."
Unlike other AI annotation services, which often face criticisms over opaque labor practices and the use of unlicensed content, D-GN builds datasets through a decentralized contributor model with on-chain traceability - using the Solana blockchain - combined with stablecoin payments, openly ensuring workers are paid fairly and AI models are trained responsibly.
"As Saudi Arabia transforms into a global hub for AI and innovation, our focus must remain on building infrastructure rooted in ethics, equity and opportunity," said Mr. Hamoud Al-Rumayyan. Adding further context, he said "Data Guardians Network represents a new model, one where the people who power AI are finally included in its value creation. This is not just an investment, it's a step toward a more inclusive digital economy aligned with the Saudi Vision 2030."
With this investment, D-GN will scale contributor operations in MENA, Latin America and Southeast Asia, with the goal of becoming the largest ethical AI data producer in the world.
droppGroup, the Miami-based AI and blockchain enterprise infrastructure leader behind sovereign-grade implementations with the likes of Saudi Aramco, Cisco and Oracle, also joined the round as an investor. droppGroup's investment furthers its focus on sovereign-grade ethical AI infrastructure. It also expands a portfolio of critical technologies built around compliance, transparency and human-centered design.
"Billions of dollars in lawsuits are hitting the AI industry because foundational models have been trained on stolen or unlicensed data," said Faisal Al Monai, Chairman of droppGroup. "D-GN solves this industrial problem. It transforms global human input into an auditable, tokenized data engine that ethically trains, verifies and improves AI systems across voice, image and text. We made this investment because we see this as a core pillar of the future AI stack for all our clients."
"When we saw Meta purchase a stake in Scale AI for around US$14-15 billion, investing in D‑GN at this stage looked like a steal. More importantly, D‑GN does it differently, upholding both ethical AI and ethical labor standards. No outsourcing to click‑farms, no gray IP zones - just clean, compliant, fair data."