- Arena, an AI leaderboard provider that started as a UC Berkeley research project in 2023, reached $100 million in annualized run-rate revenue within eight months of commercial launch.
- The company's primary product is a free crowdsourced AI model performance leaderboard, based on over 10 million user evaluations, where users compare responses from two models.
- Revenue comes from AI Evaluations, a paid service launched in September offering deep-dive performance analytics to model labs and enterprises, though charges are based on consumption, not recurring subscriptions.
- Arena competes indirectly with human labeling startups like Mercor, Surge, and Scale AI in the post-training optimization market, as AI providers seek to enhance model performance.
- In January, Arena raised a $150 million Series A at a $1.7 billion valuation, with revenue at $30 million; gross revenue from AI training at other firms like Handshake and Mercor has also surged recently.
- The platform evaluates models across tasks including text, coding, vision, image generation, and complex workflows via Agent Mode.
- Co-founded by Anastasios Angelopoulos (CEO), Wei-Lin Chiang (CTO), and Ion Stoica, Arena has raised $250 million from investors including Felicis and Andreessen Horowitz.