The problem
AI labs need expert reasoning data that can't be scraped or synthesized to make models good at professional work
What they do
Expert-made training datasets, evals and RL environments for frontier AI labs
Traction $100M+ run rate in Apr 2026, 'hundreds of millions' ARR by Jul 2026; reportedly profitable
Hiring trend
- Open roles
- 40
- Ops roles
- 4
- Headcount
- ~240
~30 staff at Apr 2026 Series A to ~240 (Tracxn); 39 open roles
Hiring in
- San Francisco
- Remote (US)
Glassdoor
3.2 ★ 10 reviews ↗Funding
- Last round
- $30M
- Stage
- Series A (new round reported)
- Date
- Apr 2026
Led by Altos Ventures (new round at reported $3.2B valuation, Sep 2026, lead undisclosed)
- Hiring+240 open roles on the live job board (30+ roles = +2)
- Funding recency+1.5Series A (new round reported) · $30M, Apr 2026 (6 months ago): 6 months or less = +1.5
- Traction+1.5Strong growth: $100M+ run rate in Apr 2026, 'hundreds of millions' ARR by Jul 2026; reportedly profitable
- Red flags−11 significant flag in the last 24 months, −1 eachForbes reported at least $50M of its recurring revenue comes from Chinese AI labs (Ant Group, Alibaba ties), drawing congressional scrutiny; contractor complaints about pulled projects and slow payForbes: Silicon Valley's other China problem, AfterQuery and Chinese labs (Aug 2026) ↗ · NY Post: GOP rep warns on US data firms supplying Chinese AI (Aug 2026) ↗ · Glassdoor: AfterQuery 3.2 from 10 ratings, contributor complaints ↗
- Total4.02 + 1.5 + 1.5 − 1 = 4.0 → Tempo (3.5–4.24)
Distance (10K) is a separate read on how long the lead can last. It doesn't change the score.
Distance
10K · edge: grows with users
Explosive revenue, but a newer entrant behind Scale, Surge and Mercor in AI data, selling to a handful of labs with China exposure that regulation could cut off.
Sources: Forbes: AfterQuery competes with Mercor, $100M run rate (Apr 2026) ↗ · AI Weekly: Forbes on Surge, Mercor, AfterQuery, Turing selling to Chinese labs (Aug 2026) ↗
Watch-outs
Forbes reported at least $50M of its recurring revenue comes from Chinese AI labs (Ant Group, Alibaba ties), drawing congressional scrutiny; contractor complaints about pulled projects and slow pay
Sources: Forbes: Silicon Valley's other China problem, AfterQuery and Chinese labs (Aug 2026) ↗ · NY Post: GOP rep warns on US data firms supplying Chinese AI (Aug 2026) ↗ · Glassdoor: AfterQuery 3.2 from 10 ratings, contributor complaints ↗
Last checked Oct 25, 2026