Appen Limited
Appen provides accurate and reliable human-annotated datasets that fuel AI and machine learning for some of the world's biggest brands, helping them achieve their AI goals through crowd solutions and expertise.
Founding Story
Appen was founded in Sydney in 1996 by linguist Dr. Julie Vonwiller and her husband Chris, a senior executive at Telstra. The company was established to pioneer speech and text recognition technology. The Vonwillers built the company from linguistic technology innovation into a global leader in AI data annotation. In 2009, Anacacia Capital acquired a 51% share of Appen as the Vonwillers sought to expand operations.
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Leadership
Founders
Dr. Julie Vonwiller
Linguist and academic. Founded Appen in Sydney in 1996. She pioneered speech and text recognition technology.
Chris Vonwiller
Senior executive at Telstra at the time of founding. Joined Appen in 2000 and served as Non-Executive Chairman.
Executive Team
Ryan Kolln
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director
Over 20 years of global experience in technology and telecommunications. Started career as an engineer focused on mobile network data engineering in Australia, Asia and North America. MBA from New York University. Joined The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2011 as a strategy consultant. Joined Appen in 2018 as VP of Corporate Development, leading strategic acquisitions like Figure Eight and Quadrant. Served as Chief Operating Officer before becoming CEO in February 2024.
Justin Miles
Chief Financial Officer
Over 20 years of experience in listed companies within technology and services sectors. Joined Appen in 2016, served over 5 years as Vice President Finance. Promoted to Interim CFO in August 2023, officially appointed CFO in February 2024. Previously Group Financial Controller at Rubicor Group Ltd. Holds Bachelor of Business (Accounting).
Business Model
Revenue Model
B2B revenue model based on providing AI data services including data annotation, collection, labeling services, AI platform subscriptions, and crowd-sourced workforce solutions. Revenue generated through API usage, project-based contracts, and enterprise platform subscriptions. Services priced on unit-based and hourly models.
Target Markets
- Technology companies
- Automotive industry
- Retail and eCommerce
- Financial services
- Government and public sector
- Healthcare
- Data Labeling
- LLM Fine-Tuning
- Model Distillation
- Red Teaming
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Search Relevance
- Eight of the top ten global technology companies
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Salesforce
History & Milestones
Armughan Ahmad resigned; Ryan Kolln (COO) appointed as CEO
Appen Connect rebranded as Crowd Gen by Appen
Armughan Ahmad succeeded Mark Brayan as CEO and President
Signed agreement to acquire Quadrant for mobile location data
Announced acquisition of Figure Eight
