CreateSafe, the company behind Grimes AI, raises $4.6m in seed round

CreateSafe, a music tech studio known for helping Grimes launch her Elf.Tech artificial intelligence project, has raised $4.6 million from its seed funding round to introduce a new AI-powered platform.

The new platform, called TRINITI, will be designed to help artists monetize generative AI opportunities in music creation and distribution. 

The funding round was led by Polychain Capital, a cryptocurrency and blockchain tech investment firm, with additional backing from Crush Ventures, Anthony Saleh (manager of Kendrick Lamar, Nas and Gunna), Paris Hilton (11:11 Media), MoonPay, Chaac Ventures, Unified Music Group, and Dan Weisman (VP, Bernstein Private Wealth Management).

Following the round, Grimes has also joined CreateSafe’s advisory board to continue to experiment and develop new AI projects.

The investment will allow TRINITI to launch as a new music platform “powering the full creative stack from inception to release,” CreateSafe said in a press release on Thursday (November 16).

TRINITI is a GenAI platform that steers away from what CreateSafe calls the industry’s “algorithmic obsession” and is instead offering new, artist-focused business model.

The TRINITI platform includes personalized AI tools with an attribution engine, utilizing voice, sound, writing, and imagery inputs to generate all creative assets required for an artist’s campaign. 

“With TRINITI, you can turn inspiration into a song and set of visuals. That music gets distributed to DSPs, a marketing plan can be generated, and all of the business on the backend can be easily managed.”

Daouda Leonard, CreateSafe

The platform currently offers five accessible tools to the public: voice transformation and cloning; text-to-audio sample generation; AI chat; distribution; and managing music IP.

“Music is the core of humankind,” said Daouda Leonard, CreateSafe Founder & CEO (and Grimes’ manager).

“However, the story of music as a profession has been corrupted by middlemen, who have misguided the industry while taking money from artists. For a few years, we’ve been saying that we are building the operating system for the new music business. With AI, it’s possible to fulfill that promise. We want to pioneer the age of exponential creativity and give power back to creators.”

“With TRINITI, you can turn inspiration into a song and set of visuals. That music gets distributed to DSPs, a marketing plan can be generated, and all of the business on the backend can be easily managed. This whole process takes seconds.”

CreateSafe said it has spent the past five years developing tools to bring transparency to the music industry. Its partnership with Grimes allowed it to offer its creative tools to the public, the company said.

Grimes partnered with CreateSafe in May to launch an AI platform in beta, called Elf.tech, inviting users to create songs using Grimes’ voice in exchange for a 50% share of the master recording royalties.

Established in January 2018, Los Angeles-based CreateSafe has developed products such as the Record Deal Simulator and Droplink. The studio has collaborated with artists, including Grimes, DJ Snake, Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, Take a Daytrip, and Dom McLennon.

Elf.tech is a prototype white label of CreateSafe’s TRINITI platform, CreateSafe said when it launched the project with Grimes in May.

Elf.tech and Grimes went on to partner with TuneCore, owned by Paris-based Believe, to let TuneCore artists distribute collaborations created through Grimes’ Elf.Tech AI to all major streaming platforms.

Less than a month ago, Grimes and CreateSafe teamed up with music technology platform Slip.stream to allow creators to incorporate over 200 GrimesAI songs in their videos, podcasts and livestreams on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

“Together, they bridged the world of music and UGC by providing a licensing platform available to creators, businesses, and freelancers to download and use music safely in their videos, posts, and streams, putting GrimesAI songs in the hands of over 300,000+ creators,” said CreateSAfe.

To date, over 1,000 Elf.tech songs have been created since its launch, leading to Grimes being named one of Time Magazine‘s ‘100 Most Influential People in AI 2023.’

Music Business Worldwide