Palo Alto-based company, Trust Lab, with a focus on transforming online safety measures for businesses and public entities, has recently closed a $15m Series A funding round.
The company specialises in detecting and monitoring harmful digital content using cutting-edge AI-powered tools.
The successful fundraising was spearheaded by leading firms U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and Foundation Capital. Trust Lab, renowned for its technologically advanced Internet safety measures, is primarily tasked with keeping the digital realm safer for users by tracking and measuring harmful content. Their impressive client portfolio includes the European Commission, the European Union, In-Q-Tel, and numerous high-profile social media companies and marketplaces.
Trust Lab holds the distinctive position of being the first company to offer a comprehensive solution to online safety that amalgamates monitoring, compliance, and enforcement of harmful and illegal content on a large scale. Its state-of-the-art technology, robust policies, and strategic partnerships have been developed by industry experts from Google, YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok.
This recent influx of $15m will be leveraged to augment Trust Lab’s mission of countering the growing tide of harmful content and actors on the Internet. The objective is to equip organisations with the advanced and flexible tools they require for enforcing compliance on content that potentially harms users, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
In addition to these strides in safety tech, Trust Lab also collaborates with both the U.S. government and the European Union to protect online free speech while mitigating the spread of harmful content. The majority of leading social media companies, content hosting services, messaging firms, and marketplaces utilise Trust Lab’s innovative tools and services.
Trust Lab’s CEO, Tom Siegel, said, “Many companies and platforms are throttling their investment in Trust & Safety. As a result, harmful content and actors are making inroads. Organisations need more flexible, cutting-edge tools for enforcement and compliance of content that harms users, especially the most vulnerable ones.
“For over a decade, the Trust Lab founding team has worked in executive leadership roles at the forefront of technical innovation to solve these problematic issues. Now, using our cutting-edge AI and ML tools, our customers are making progress in combating Internet abuse at scale.”
Dafina Toncheva, Early-Stage Investor at USVP, followed up with, “Many government organisations, the top social media platforms, and enterprise customers turn to Trust Lab to help them make the Internet a safer place for users. They are undisputed experts in applying ML and AI technology to prevent harmful misinformation and bad actors. We all have a stake in their success and in countering harm across the Internet. This is a vast market with a lot of growth potential and Trust Lab is leading the way.”
Steve Vassallo, General Partner, Foundation Capital, also commented, “So far, social media companies have attempted to moderate harmful content by building Trust & Safety teams and hiring tens of thousands of people. This approach isn’t scalable, nor is it particularly effective. The only way we can address content safety in an automated, scalable way is with technology like Trust Lab’s. This is one reason why we invest in technology-driven companies focused on security, privacy, and Internet trust and safety.”
This marks Trust Lab’s first publicly disclosed round of funding since its inception.
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