Versos offers copyright-cleared data to help AI generate videos, not lawsuits

As tech giants like Cohere and OpenAI face lawsuits over AI training methods that allegedly violate copyright laws, Versos AI is betting that companies want to buy training material they know they legally have the right to use.

The Saint John, NB-based startup announced today it closed a $1.85-million seed round on November 14 that will help build the Video Training Data Marketplace, a shop it claims is the “world’s first” to let customers buy and sell rights-cleared footage for powering AI models. The company says it turns plain video into “AI-ready” data with the appropriate structuring, as well as ownership and transfers that can be traced.

“The industry is waking up to a simple truth: AI needs video, and that video must be rights-cleared, structured, and traceable,” Versos CEO Chris Keevill said in a statement.

“The tracking of rights in an AI world is critically, critically important.”
Chris Keevill, Versos

The funding was conducted using a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE), and was led by Innovobot Resonance Ventures (IRV), as well as the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF). Charlottetown, PEI-based Island Capital Partners, Toronto’s RiSC Capital, and the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Fund also participated in the round. The startup previously raised $1.5 million through a SAFE.

In an interview with BetaKit, Keevill highlighted the variety of Atlantic Canada investors and noted that there were no intentions to leave the region. “We’re a proud Maritime company,” he said.

Versos was founded in 2022 by Keevill and Cezar Grzelak, who serves as the company’s chief science officer. As Keeville explained to BetaKit, the company was built as a response to early generative AI systems like Midjourney. While copyright wasn’t the initial focus, Grzelak developed a thesis that “opportunities” would emerge from building intelligence into videos.

Versos AI said it would use the funding to “accelerate” development, expand its studio onboarding process, and back the launch of its broader Video Intelligence Platform. The system helps AI developers source, create, and track rights-cleared video.

IRV Fund Managing Partner Neha Khera said in a statement that Versos’ approach “fills a gap” in the industry. “Versos is building critical infrastructure at exactly the moment video-first AI ‘world models’ are entering mainstream adoption,” she said.

The funding comes alongside breakthroughs in video-friendly AI large-language models (LLMs). Google, for instance, recently released Gemini 3 models that are better at interpreting video data when reasoning, while its Veo 3.1 model provides more convincing video generation.

However, copyright concerns remain. Rights holders like news publishers have alleged that major LLM creators frequently train on copyrighted material scraped from the internet without permission, prompting lawsuits. That, in turn, has led some creators to avoid AI content out of worries they might face legal action.

Versos AI isn’t alone in addressing the rights issue, although the methods vary. Toronto startup Moonvalley recently raised a fresh, $84-million USD round for a video generator trained solely on licensed footage, letting movie and TV studios safely incorporate AI videos into their productions.

Keevill sees his company more as one part of an ethical AI ecosystem than a competitor. Where Moonvalley is a buyer for video content, Versos AI is a supplier that helps video producers make “passive income” from their content.

The co-founder also believes that copyright issues are now permanent fixtures. It’s now “very difficult” to train on public data without running into problems, he said. He contends that creators will always have to worry about the origins of their material, and that those worries are only going to grow along with the pile of data.

“It’s going to be with us forever,” Keevill told BetaKit. “The tracking of rights in an AI world is critically, critically important.”

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Jakob Owens.