# Mikayel Khachatryan

> Mikayel Khachatryan is the CEO and co-founder of Wirestock, a San Francisco-based platform that began by simplifying stock-media distribution and now connects more than 700,000 creative professionals with paid projects that supply licensed multimodal data to AI labs. With a background spanning mathematics, statistics, finance, and product monetization, he has led Wirestock from a four-friend startup into a creator marketplace and data infrastructure business that raised a $23 million Series A in May 2026.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Wirestock
- **Organizations:** Wirestock, PicsArt
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Utah State University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Wirestock and grew it from a four-person founding team into a global creator and multimodal-data platform., Built creator workflows for captioning, keywording, releases, licensing, and multi-marketplace distribution., Led Wirestock's 2023 pivot into licensed multimodal data for AI training.

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Began working at PicsArt in consulting and product monetization, according to The Org.
- **2018** — Started interviewing stock-content contributors about the friction of uploading and submitting work.
- **2019** — Co-founded Wirestock with Ashot Mnatsakanyan, Vladimir Khoetsyan, and Hovhannes Kuloghlyan and became CEO.
- **2020** — Wirestock passed one million uploaded images.
- **2022** — Wirestock raised a $2.3 million seed round and later announced distribution through Getty Images and iStock.
- **2023** — Led Wirestock's pivot from stock-media distribution toward supplying licensed multimodal data to AI labs.
- **2024** — Discussed AI-generated stock content on the EVN Disrupt podcast and appeared at GENAI Summit SF.
- **2025** — Spoke at CEPIC on licensing content for AI training.
- **2026** — Wirestock raised a $23 million Series A led by Nava Ventures; the company reported more than 700,000 creators, six major foundation-model customers, a $40 million annual revenue run rate, and $15 million paid to contributors.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Wirestock and grew it from a four-person founding team into a global creator and multimodal-data platform.
- Built creator workflows for captioning, keywording, releases, licensing, and multi-marketplace distribution.
- Led Wirestock's 2023 pivot into licensed multimodal data for AI training.
- Closed a $23 million Series A led by Nava Ventures in May 2026.
- Reached a reported network of more than 700,000 creators by 2026.
- Reported $15 million in cumulative contributor payouts and a $40 million annual revenue run rate in 2026.
- Secured a 2022 partnership that brought Getty Images and iStock distribution to Wirestock contributors.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Wirestock announced a $23 million Series A led by Nava Ventures, with participation from SBVP, Formula VC, I2BF Global Ventures, and other investors.
- **2026-05** — Khachatryan said Wirestock supplied multimodal data to six of the largest foundation-model makers and had paid $15 million to contributors.
- **2026-05** — Wirestock reported more than 700,000 creators and a $40 million annual revenue run rate.
- **2026-04** — Wirestock detailed the retirement of its legacy Portfolio and third-party marketplace distribution workflows as it focused on paid creator projects.
- **2026-01** — Wirestock described its shift from passive stock distribution toward project-based opportunities for creative professionals and reported a $1.6 million creator payout in the previous month.

## Links

- Website: https://wirestock.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkh
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Wirestock
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv-CcYSo3ooIQyaCghppOEw
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wire.stock/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wirestock

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mikayel-khachatryan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18