Insights exchange for the model-driven economy: transforming and democratizing data from a fragmented, high-friction asset into an on-demand utility for AI-driven businesses

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Carbon Arc today announced funding of $56 million in venture capital to launch the world’s first real-time insights exchange, providing businesses and the AI community with seamless intelligence and structured, model-ready data. The investment is led by Liberty City Ventures who has incubated the company since its earliest days, with participation from K5 Global, Raptor Group, and Wasserman Media Group; the funding will fuel the expansion of Carbon Arc’s data utility, the essential infrastructure for businesses that want to operate at the speed of AI. The company is led by Kirk McKeown, who built and ran large proprietary research businesses at respected firms like Point72 and Glenview Capital.

There are huge wells of high-quality data locked away—raw, siloed, and underutilized in outdated pricing models. Data today trades like stocks did in the 1930s. We are building the exchange that turns data into a liquid, tradable asset.Share

“Every major technology movement over the last 150 years has had an equally meaningful transformation in its underlying power source,” said Kirk McKeown, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Arc. “The Industrial Age had electricity; the Mobility Age, oil and gas; the Financial Engineering Age, market evolution. The Intelligence Age will be no different. There are huge wells of high-quality data locked away—raw, siloed, and underutilized in outdated pricing models. Data today trades like stocks did in the 1930s. We are building the exchange that turns data into a liquid, tradable asset. We’re unlocking private data, turning it into insights, and getting it into the hands of decision-makers who need it. That’s why we built Carbon Arc: frictionless access to insights at scale.”

Like utility companies Duke Energy or NextEra for the AI age, Carbon Arc makes the raw power of data as consumable as electricity. The company’s Insights Exchange takes raw data from across industries and transforms it into structured, standardized intelligence that AI models and businesses can truly use.

At the core of Carbon Arc’s model is a proprietary unified ontology that allows users to cross walk datasets and build insights not only using a panel-based approach but leveraging an entity framework across multiple data feeds. Similar to an oil refinery turning raw crude into usable fuel, this framework turns raw data into usable insights, by connecting data assets to tangible entities like companies, brands, locations, and people.

Instead of forcing companies into rigid contracts for massive, underutilized datasets, Carbon Arc’s platform allows businesses to be nimble in their data sourcing and acquisition journey. Businesses can dynamically consume, trade, and integrate insights without time intensive data cleaning processes or lengthy legal and compliance reviews.

AI-led competitive advantage comes from integrating external insights in real time. A supply chain AI model, for example, may be trained on a company’s own inventory and logistics data, but that only tells half the story. Staying ahead of disruptions requires real-time insights into competitor activity, labor costs, weather patterns, and global supply chain conditions.

“AI moves at the speed of data, but most businesses are stuck with fragmented, slow-moving systems,” McKeown added. “The companies that win with AI will be the ones that merge internal and external insights in real time. Carbon Arc makes that possible.”

Yet, accessing external data in a structured, usable format is nearly impossible. Data sources are siloed, inconsistent, and locked in slow-moving legacy models. Carbon Arc removes those barriers, making structured, AI-ready external insights as accessible as a company’s internal data.

Rewiring the Data Economy: Insights as a Tradable Asset

The data market today functions like Wall Street before the digital revolution—slow, opaque, and built on rigid, one-off transactions. Carbon Arc’s Insights Exchange changes that by bringing liquidity to the market, making insights:

• Fungible – Businesses can buy, sell, and consume insights dynamically.
• Ratable – Insights are priced based on consumption, not arbitrary contracts.
• AI-Ready – Standardized and structured for immediate use.

“Carbon Arc has fundamentally changed how we access, consume and leverage data throughout our whole company – empowering our team with unparalleled data and high-quality, immediate insights,” said Natalie Bruss, Managing Partner at Range Media Partners. “Our partnership enables Range to get the actionable insights we need to drive important decisions for our clients and partners across the entertainment ecosystem.”

“Carbon Arc is a partner with the same vision for how we should access and consume data—focus on the output, application, and next business decision, gathering exactly what we need when we need it,” said the Wasserman Group. “Their exchange enables this, is cost-effective, and—most importantly—seamless in our workflow.”

The need for scalable, structured intelligence is growing rapidly, and Carbon Arc is already powering some of the world’s leading enterprises, including:

• Hedge funds and financial institutions leveraging real-time insights for market intelligence.
• AI-native companies training models with structured, decision-ready data.
• Retail, healthcare, and media companies optimize operations, supply chains, and customer engagement.

With 84,000 API endpoints, petabytes of structured data, and dozens of top-tier enterprise customers, Carbon Arc is quickly becoming the default infrastructure for decision-making.

With $56 million in funding, Carbon Arc will accelerate growth of its Insights Exchange, driving additional data assets to the platform and giving new and existing customers new and unique opportunities to create business value. The company is focused on expanding global data partnerships, and onboarding providers across finance, healthcare, media, and retail. Lastly, Carbon Arc will continue to advance AI-powered ontology frameworks, making structured, AI-ready insights universally accessible.

About Carbon Arc

Carbon Arc is the world’s first data utility for AI, transforming how businesses access and use insights. By replacing outdated, high-friction data models with a seamless, on-demand insights exchange, Carbon Arc is building the infrastructure AI-driven businesses need to scale.

For more information, visit www.carbonarc.co.

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