Gable.ai is emerging out of stealth mode this week with $7 million in seed funding and a plan to bridge the gap between data gathering and the artificial intelligence applications that rely on that data to function. The startup’s approach is based on the premise that “data modeling is often an afterthought” at the AI stage, where software developers are stuck working with whatever the data crew has handed them. Gable.ai aims to create a more structured workflow between the two, where end-uses are taken into account at the front end resulting in clean data optimized for AI use.

While large companies like Google, Meta, Intuit, Adobe, Microsoft and others have teams in place to connect the dots, Gable.ai can potentially offer valuable help to mid-sized and smaller firms (as well as larger ones with poorly integrated IT ops).

“Today when data is shared it’s dumped from production into analytics databases without constraints or context,” which can result in “data being inadequately structured and causing breaking,” Gable.ai writes in its fund-raise announcement, which laments that while software developers “meticulously consider how systems interact with each other” on things like code interoperability and scalability, they rarely collaborate on the business intelligence their systems produce.

“Software developers typically lack visibility into how data is consumed,” leading to opacity and “missing critical data, a lack of semantic context and frequent breakdowns of revenue-driving data pipelines,” per Gable.ai. To combat such problems, the startup’s data collaboration platform uses “data contracts,” an “API-based agreement between the software developers who own upstream data sources and data developers/analysts that consume data.”

Investors led by Zetta Venture Partners, Crane Venture Capital and Essence Venture Capital are buying into Gable.ai’s vision, calling the company “akin to ‘GitHub for data.” The raise also includes participation from angel investor the New Normal Fund and private investors with experience in data tech.

Prior to helping to found Gable.ai, CEO Chad Sanderson “and his co-founders, Adrian Kreuziger and Daniel Dicker, led the data department at Convoy, the $4 billion digital freight network that moves thousands of truckloads around the country each day through an optimized, connected network of carriers,” according to VentureBeat.

Geekwire dubs the founders “part of the ‘Convoy Mafia,’ a growing list of companies in the Seattle-area founded or led by former employees of the tech-focused trucking firm,” with about 25 startups led by former employees.