micro1 is an innovative platform designed to connect artificial intelligence companies with some of the world’s leading experts. This collaboration aims to improve the intelligence of large language models, commonly referred to as LLMs. Recently, micro1 announced it has secured $35 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by 01A.
This funding has positioned Micro1 with a valuation of $500 million, following a period of substantial growth for the company. Currently, micro1 works with several prominent AI labs and Fortune 100 companies, including Microsoft. Notably, it has achieved an annual revenue run rate of $50 million, demonstrating a remarkable month-over-month growth rate of 40%.
The primary purpose of micro1 is to help AI labs enhance the reliability and accuracy of their models, especially in complex and specialized fields such as medicine, law, finance, and advanced mathematics. Rather than relying on standard, generic training data, micro1 adopts a different approach. The platform recruits experts, including professors, PhDs, medical doctors, and competitive coders, whose deep knowledge in specific subjects can contribute to more precise and informed AI responses. This strategy ensures that the AI models are not only trained on broad datasets but are also enriched with expert insights that enhance their performance on challenging questions.
At the heart of the micro1 platform is Zara, an AI-powered recruitment tool designed to streamline the process of finding and vetting experts at scale. With Zara, micro1 can efficiently identify and interview a large number of specialists. For instance, if there is a need for expertise in clinical questions, Zara can find and validate the responses from 100 qualified doctors. Similarly, it can connect with leading calculus professors for advanced mathematical reasoning or engage experts in cybersecurity to assess the safety of AI measures. The platform has engaged thousands of experts—many of whom hold advanced degrees—and has facilitated over half a million AI-led interviews, making it a leader in the market.
Once the experts are chosen, their knowledge is systematically captured and organized into datasets that can be used to train LLMs. This unique combination of large-scale expert recruitment and the transformation of expert knowledge into relevant data is what sets micro1 apart from other providers in the field.
micro1 serves a diverse clientele that includes AI labs aiming to develop cutting-edge models and companies seeking to streamline their hiring processes. By utilizing Zara, organizations can find highly qualified engineers, data center technicians, customer support agents, and various other specialists more efficiently. On average, businesses that implement Zara experience a reduction in recruitment costs by 87%. They also see a substantial increase in the success rate of candidates in the human interview stage, which is five times higher than traditional methods. Additionally, companies report a 20 percent improvement in candidate experience, as measured by their Net Promoter Score.
The funds raised in this latest round will be instrumental in accelerating micro1’s efforts to expand its research team. This team is led by Stefano Ermon, a respected Computer Science Professor at Stanford University. Furthermore, the funding will be used to enhance the company’s data infrastructure and improve its ability to serve major AI labs worldwide. As part of its growth strategy, micro1 has also expanded its board of directors by bringing on board Adam Bain, a co-founder and managing partner at 01A and previously the Chief Operating Officer of Twitter, along with Joshua Browder, the founder and CEO of DoNotPay.
KEY QUOTES:
“Models improve when exceptional people work on well-defined problems with a rigorous workflow. Zara allows us to identify some of the most intelligent minds on the planet at scale, and our data platform transforms their expertise into datasets that move AI forward without compromising quality or safety. At the core of our research lab is one guiding question: where should each person spend their time? By aligning extraordinary talent with the problems that matter most, we believe we can solve humanity’s greatest coordination challenge.”
Ali Ansari, founder and CEO of micro1
“Human brilliance is needed more than ever. Really the only way models are now learning is through net new human data. micro1 is at the core of providing that data to all frontier labs, while moving at speeds I’ve never seen before.”
Adam Bain
