Coactive AI

Coactive AI, founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Jose, California, is a company focused on solving challenges related to unstructured visual content. The company builds pre-trained AI models capable of parsing large amounts of visual data, which helps eliminate the need for humans to identify examples manually. This technology is especially useful in fields such as content moderation, where Coactive AI’s models can automatically sort prohibited and accepted images and videos. The company's technology also assists in organizing vast photo assets for enterprises, making it easier for them to make sense of large visual data sets.
 

Led by CEO Cody Coleman, a computer science graduate from both Stanford and MIT, Coactive AI has seen significant growth. The company raised $44 million in its Series B funding round in May 2024, reaching a valuation of $200 million. It has also been recognised by Forbes as one of the next billion-dollar startups.

Coactive AI’s flagship product is its Multimodal Application Platform (MAP), which allows companies to search, analyse, and unlock the hidden value in their visual content without the need for metadata or tags. This platform enables media enterprises to discover valuable assets, analyse trends, and build a foundation for future AI-powered applications.
 

With a small team of around 14 employees, Coactive AI is based in the United States and operates in the data labelling software industry. It serves media and enterprise sectors that need to work with large amounts of unstructured visual data. The company’s mission is to make visual data analysis more accessible and efficient for businesses across various industries, allowing them to streamline their operations and gain deeper insights from their content.

Coactive AI was established in 2021 by Cody Coleman and William Gaviria Rojas, both alumni of MIT and Stanford University. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California. The founders aimed to address the challenges enterprises face in managing vast amounts of unstructured visual content, such as images and videos. 

Traditional methods often rely on manual tagging and metadata, which are time-consuming and inefficient. Coactive AI developed a platform that leverages multimodal artificial intelligence to automatically analyse and organise visual data without the need for extensive tagging.
 

In March 2023, Coactive AI secured $10.4 million in Series A funding. This investment, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, enabled the company to scale its operations and enhance its platform's capabilities. The funding supported the development of advanced features that allowed businesses to gain insights from their visual content more effectively.
 

By May 2024, Coactive AI had raised an additional $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total valuation to $200 million. This round was co-led by Emerson Collective and Cherryrock Capital, with participation from Greycroft and previous investors. 

The Series B funding aimed to accelerate the development of the company's no-metadata AI platform and expand its enterprise adoption. The platform's ability to process raw visual data directly, without relying on metadata, positioned Coactive AI as a leader in the field of visual content analysis.
 

In recognition of its innovative approach and growth, Coactive AI was featured in Forbes' 2024 list of Next Billion-Dollar Startups. This accolade highlighted the company's potential to reach a $1 billion valuation in the near future.
 

As of October 2025, Coactive AI continues to advance its mission of transforming how enterprises interact with visual content. The company collaborates with various industries, including media, retail, and entertainment, to provide solutions that enhance content discovery, moderation, and analytics.

Coactive AI's mission is to help businesses unlock the value of unstructured visual content. By using advanced AI models, the company makes it easier to analyse images and videos without needing manual tagging or metadata. Their platform, the Multimodal Application Platform (MAP), allows companies to discover, organise, and extract insights from large visual datasets. This helps enterprises in various sectors, including media, retail, and entertainment, to efficiently manage and understand their content, saving time and improving decision-making.

Coactive AI’s vision is to transform the way businesses interact with visual content through advanced AI. The company aims to provide a seamless, automated solution for enterprises to search, analyse, and utilise images and videos, regardless of metadata or tags. By making visual data accessible and actionable, Coactive AI strives to empower organisations to optimise their content, streamline workflows, and uncover valuable insights. The goal is to lead the industry in creating AI-powered tools that enable businesses to make better decisions and drive innovation in visual content management.

Coactive AI has received significant recognition for its innovative work in visual content analysis. In May 2024, the company raised $44 million in Series B funding, which brought its valuation to $200 million. It was also featured in Forbes’ list of Next Billion-Dollar Startups, highlighting its potential for rapid growth. This recognition underscores the company’s success in transforming how businesses handle visual data. Coactive AI’s contributions to the AI and data labelling industry have positioned it as a leader in the field, with continued growth and expansion expected in the coming years.

Coactive AI offers a range of products and services designed to help businesses manage, analyse, and extract value from unstructured visual content, such as images and videos. Their core offering is the Multimodal Application Platform (MAP), which uses advanced AI to analyse raw visual data without relying on metadata or tags. This platform empowers businesses to unlock the hidden potential within their visual assets, making it easier to discover valuable content, analyse trends, and build a foundation for future AI-driven applications.
 

Multimodal Application Platform (MAP)- The MAP platform is the heart of Coactive AI's offerings. It uses pre-trained AI models to process images and videos in various formats. Unlike traditional methods that require manually adding tags or metadata, MAP automatically identifies and classifies content by analysing its visual features. This makes it easier for businesses, especially in media, retail, and entertainment sectors, to work with large quantities of unstructured visual data. The platform helps businesses improve their content discovery, content moderation, and visual asset management. It also enables more efficient searching, allowing users to quickly find relevant assets without needing manual input.
 

Content Moderation Services- Coactive AI's content moderation service uses the MAP platform to automatically sort images and videos into categories such as "safe" or "prohibited". This is especially valuable for platforms dealing with large volumes of user-generated content, such as social media, e-commerce, and online marketplaces. By automating the moderation process, Coactive AI helps businesses reduce the risk of inappropriate content slipping through, while also saving time and resources compared to manual moderation. The AI models are trained to recognise and flag harmful or inappropriate content, making the process more efficient and consistent.
 

Visual Asset Management- Coactive AI’s visual asset management services help businesses organise their image and video libraries. Many businesses struggle with managing large amounts of visual content, especially when they lack consistent tagging or metadata. Coactive AI's solution simplifies this by automatically categorising and indexing images based on their visual content. This allows businesses to easily search and retrieve assets as needed, improving workflows and productivity. The platform can identify trends within large datasets, helping businesses understand what content is performing well or resonating with audiences.
 

AI for Trend Analysis- In addition to asset management, Coactive AI offers services to analyse trends within visual content. The AI models can detect patterns in the data, such as changes in user preferences or emerging content types. This helps businesses make data-driven decisions by providing insights into what content is most engaging or relevant. For example, an e-commerce platform might use Coactive AI's tools to track the types of products that generate the most interest from users based on visual content, enabling the platform to optimise its marketing efforts and product recommendations.

AI-Powered Insights for Future Use Cases- Coactive AI is also focused on developing AI solutions that will help businesses build a foundation for future applications. The company’s tools are designed to be flexible and adaptable, enabling businesses to scale their visual content analysis as they grow. This is particularly important for industries like media and entertainment, where the volume of content is continually increasing. By leveraging AI, Coactive AI ensures that businesses are not only able to manage their existing visual assets but are also prepared to take advantage of future advancements in AI and machine learning.