SignSplit has launched out of stealth with 400 million dollars in funding at a 1 billion dollar valuation. The startup builds infrastructure for data provenance in the age of AI.

The round came from W Group. Founded in 2024 and led by CEO Alessandro Monterosso, the company lets people digitally sign datasets, likenesses and creative works. Owners get paid when AI firms use their signed data.

The platform covers consent terms, aggregated data pools and verification layers. It targets researchers and businesses that train AI models and need clean, licensed data.

Data provenance has become a hot issue as AI companies face lawsuits over training data. Courts and regulators are asking where models get their information and whether creators agreed to its use.

SignSplit’s backers are betting that paid, permissioned data becomes the norm. If AI labs must show licenses for their training data, a signing and payment rails business could sit at the centre of the market.