Fundraising Fox

Encord

YC W21

London, GB · Founded 2021 · 150 employees · Hiring · 9 known investors

Encord provides a data platform for developing and deploying multimodal AI systems, serving AI development teams at scale across training and production environments.

Also known as Cord · Cord Technologies · Encord

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W21)

Encord was founded in 2021 by Ulrik Stig Hansen and Eric Landau.

USUlrik Stig Hansen
Ulrik Stig HanseninCo-Founder & Co-CEOUlrik Stig Hansen is co-founder and co-CEO of Encord, a data infrastructure company.
ELEric Landau
Eric LandauinCo-FounderEric Landau studied physics and electrical engineering at Stanford University and applied physics at Harvard University. He worked as a senior quantitative researcher at DRW before cofounding and leading Encord.

Investors · 9

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$60M disclosed across 1 of 2 rounds · 2026

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Encord operates a data infrastructure platform for building and running AI systems on multimodal data. The platform spans the data pipeline: managing, curating and annotating datasets; aligning and evaluating models; and feeding production feedback back into training. Annotation capabilities cover video, images, LiDAR, audio, text and sensor-fusion workflows within a single environment, with label lineage and quality controls intended for production-scale use. Curation tools include embedding-based search and model-in-the-loop review to surface rare edge cases and close gaps in data distribution, while alignment features support RLHF, rubric-based evaluation and pairwise comparison of models in production.

Alongside software, Encord offers data-as-a-service: access to vetted domain-expert annotators, domain specialists, and managed data collection carried out by in-field operators and at the company's teleoperation facilities, all integrated with the platform. The product is positioned as API/SDK-first with no data migration required, keeping customer data in the customer's own cloud, and the company maintains a trust center covering security and compliance posture.

Business model

Encord combines a software platform for AI data management, annotation, curation and evaluation with services-based offerings, including expert annotation workforces and managed data collection delivered through in-field operators and teleoperation facilities. Engagement with prospective customers is sales-led via demo requests [0].

Traction

The company states that more than 300 AI teams use the platform. In a published customer example, UiPath used Encord to annotate and manage image and text training data, reporting 10x dataset growth, a 4x reduction in error rate, and near 99% model accuracy for table extraction [0].

Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market

Market position

Encord positions itself as an end-to-end data infrastructure partner for physical AI, covering collection through deployment feedback, and as a multimodal-by-design platform serving both physical AI and enterprise AI teams [0].

Stated differentiators include multimodal coverage in a single workflow (video, LiDAR, audio, text, sensor fusion), an API/SDK-first architecture with zero data migration and customer-cloud data residency, integrated data-as-a-service with domain-expert annotators and managed collection, and end-to-end coverage of the physical AI data lifecycle [0].

Technology

Multimodal data infrastructure supporting native video annotation, LiDAR, audio, text and sensor fusion in shared workflows, with label lineage and quality controls. Curation relies on embedding-based search and model-in-the-loop workflows; evaluation and alignment support RLHF, rubric-based scoring and pairwise comparison. The system is API/SDK-first, requires no data migration, and keeps customer data within the customer's cloud environment. Customizable multimodal workflows and native agent integrations are supported [0].

Go-to-market

Direct enterprise sales with demo booking as the primary conversion path, supported by vertical-specific product pages, customer case studies and referenced adoption by over 300 AI teams [0].

AI development teams in physical AI and enterprise settings, including world models and vision-language-action systems, robotics and humanoids, autonomous vehicles and ADAS, drones and aerial autonomy, industrial and manufacturing applications, healthcare and surgical AI, frontier and generative AI, video intelligence, defense, sports AI and voice AI. UiPath is cited as a customer [0].

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
AI teams using EncordJan 2025300 customers
HeadcountAug 2026204
UiPath dataset growth using EncordJan 202510 x
UiPath error rate reduction using EncordJan 20254 x

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Founder mafia

2 people who came through Encord went on to found or lead other companies.

Competitors · 7

by search overlap
Netezza2967 shared keywordsIBM is a global technology company whose business spans enterprise software (including Red Hat, HashiCorp, and Confluent), IT infrastructure such as mainframes, servers, and storage, and IT consulting services. The company is also investing heavily in quantum computing and AI-based enterprise offerings, including its Lightwell open-source software security clearinghouse and the Anderon quantum wafer foundry.
DataCamp2408 shared keywordsDataCamp is a learning platform for teams that teaches data and AI skills through hands-on coursework accessible via web browser and mobile app. It serves enterprise customers and development teams seeking to build technical capabilities.
Ultralytics1703 shared keywordsUltralytics provides an end-to-end computer vision platform for annotating images and videos, training YOLO models on cloud infrastructure, and deploying models across 42 global regions. The platform serves developers and enterprises across industries including manufacturing, healthcare, automotive, agriculture, retail, and logistics.
Roboflow1480 shared keywordsRoboflow provides tools for developers to build and deploy computer vision applications, including image annotation, model benchmarking, and dataset management. The platform serves software engineers and enterprises who need to create vision-based applications.
Hugging Face1478 shared keywordsHugging Face is a collaboration platform that hosts and provides access to machine learning models, datasets, and applications. It offers both open-source tools for the ML community and paid compute and enterprise solutions for teams building AI applications.
Super Annotate1108 shared keywordsSuperAnnotate is a data platform used to build, manage, and refine training data for AI and machine learning models. It is positioned as a data pipeline partner for teams developing AI systems.
NVIDIA1061 shared keywordsNVIDIA designs GPUs, AI computing hardware, and software platforms for AI development, data centers, autonomous vehicles, and robotics, serving developers, researchers, and enterprises. Its offerings include AI models, power architecture for AI factories, and compute infrastructure used across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and automotive.

Companies competing with Encord for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
EncordNo. 12190314 · inc. Sep 2019 · dissolved

Companies House · registry record

View on Companies House ↗
Registered name
ENCORDÉ LTD
Company number
12190314
Status
Dissolved
Company type
Private limited company
Incorporated
5 Sept 2019
Dissolved
8 Feb 2022
Registered office
36b Linden Gardens, London, W2 4ET
Nature of business (SIC)
47710 — Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores

Current officers

  • Dale Anthony Rogers director, appointed 5 Sept 2019

Source: Companies House public register · retrieved 24 Jul 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

In the news

Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Encord do?
Encord provides multimodal data infrastructure for physical AI and enterprise AI teams, from data collection through deployment.
Who founded Encord?
Encord was founded by Ulrik Stig Hansen, Eric Landau in 2021.
Who are Encord's investors?
Encord's investors include Bright Pixel Capital, Crane Venture Partners, CRV (Charles River Ventures), Next47, Sonae IM, Y Combinator, Harpoon Ventures, Isomer Capital and 1 more.
How much funding has Encord raised?
Encord has disclosed $60M raised across 1 of its 2 known rounds.
Where is Encord headquartered?
Encord is headquartered in London, GB.