Toss Partners With Poseidon to Let 30 Million Users Earn From AI Training Data
South Korean financial super-app Toss, operated by Viva Republica, has partnered with data infrastructure firm Poseidon to launch a model that lets its roughly 30 million users earn money by contributing real-world data for artificial intelligence training. The integration, announced June 26, 2026, marks Toss’s first direct entry into the AI data market and positions the company at the center of a growing industry need for human-generated training material.
How the Data Contribution Model Works
Through the partnership, Poseidon’s contributor app, Numo, is embedded directly inside the Toss app. Users can record voice samples, capture images, and submit video clips that capture natural human behavior. Each contribution is tracked and valued through Poseidon’s infrastructure, while Toss handles the financial layer that turns participation into payment.
Also read: Story Rebrands as The DATA Foundation, Launches Trace Audit Layer for AI Training Data
Every piece of data submitted through Numo is registered on the DATA network, an AI data infrastructure project that Poseidon refines data for. The network includes a public audit layer called Trace, which creates a verifiable provenance trail for each record. This allows AI labs to see exactly where training data originated and allows contributors to confirm their work was counted and compensated.
Addressing the AI Industry’s Data Shortage
Frontier AI models have largely exhausted the supply of publicly available internet text and images. The next generation of models depends on what the industry calls “real-world data” — recordings of how people actually speak, move, and react in uncontrolled environments. This type of data does not exist on the open web in usable form and has historically lacked a clean system for sourcing, licensing, and paying contributors.
Also read: Bittensor Price Prediction: Can TAO Lead the Next AI Crypto Rally?
Poseidon, which raised a $15 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), is building the infrastructure to fill that gap. The company’s Numo app has already recorded more than 711,000 data registrations worldwide before launching on Toss.
Why South Korea and Toss
South Korea presents a combination of factors that make it a strategic launch market: dense urban populations generating rich real-world data, a mature financial system, and one of the world’s highest smartphone penetration rates. Toss, as the country’s dominant mobile financial platform, provides the user base and the trusted payment infrastructure needed to scale data contributions quickly.
Changhoon Seo, Executive Director of New Business at Toss, said the company plans to “build an environment where users can take part in the data economy more easily and naturally, and to expand a structure in which the value they contribute is rewarded transparently.”
SY Lee, Chief Strategy Officer and Chairman of Poseidon, noted that Korea is “one of the few markets where the strategic importance of AI data, a mature financial system, and world-class mobile experience all exist at once.” Lee previously founded the web-novel platform Radish, co-founded Story (which recently rebranded as the DATA Foundation), and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum this year.
Broader Implications for the AI Data Economy
The partnership represents a practical answer to a question that has troubled the AI industry: how to compensate the individuals whose data makes models more capable. While several companies have experimented with data marketplaces, the Toss-Poseidon model is among the first to integrate directly with a mass-market financial app, potentially lowering the barrier for ordinary users to participate.
The data collected through Numo is classified as “first-person data” — recorded by real people in real environments. This category is among the most difficult and valuable to obtain, serving as raw material for physical intelligence applications in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other systems that must operate in the physical world. Poseidon and Toss plan to prove the model in Korea before expanding to global markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Toss and Poseidon partnership about?
Toss and Poseidon have partnered to launch the Numo app inside Toss, enabling users to contribute real-world voice, image, and video data for AI training and receive direct payment for their contributions.
How do Toss users get paid for their data?
Users contribute data through the Numo app, and Poseidon’s infrastructure tracks each contribution and its value. Toss then handles the payment, creating a transparent system where users are compensated based on what they provide.
Why is real-world data important for AI?
Frontier AI models have largely exhausted publicly available internet data. Real-world data, which captures how people speak, move, and react in natural environments, is essential for developing physical intelligence in areas like robotics and autonomous vehicles.
What is the DATA Foundation mentioned in the article?
The DATA Foundation is the rebranded entity of Story, an IP infrastructure project. It provides a public audit layer called Trace that gives each data record a verifiable provenance trail, ensuring transparency for both buyers and contributors.
