IP Protection Platform MarqVision Raises $5 Million

By Annie Baker ● Oct 9, 2021
  • MarqVision announced it raised $5 million in a seed round of funding. These are the details.

MarqVision — a next-generation and AI-powered IP protection platform — announced it raised $5 million in a seed round of funding from SoftBank Ventures, Y Combinator, and Bass Investment. And the funding follows MarqVision’s graduation from the technology incubator Y Combinator as a summer 2021 cohort where it further developed its platform to automate the detection and reporting of counterfeits through image recognition and semantic analysis.

As annual counterfeiting sales reached $3 trillion last year, MarqVision has experienced rapid growth since launching in 2020 — reporting a 50% monthly growth rate over the past six months. And MarqVision reached $1 million in annual recurring revenue after nine months, surpassing the standard rate for a SaaS startup.

The brand protection industry is outdated with 90% of detection and enforcement work done manually. And traditional brand protection requires sizable operations teams to tackle the problem. Plus MarqVision automates the process with software and AI, resulting in productivity increases and cost savings for brands and retailers.

With this seed round, MarqVision is going to expand the company infrastructure and increase enforcement capabilities in Asia. And MarqVision launched its newest product, an anti-piracy software to protect global content in the gaming, entertainment and animation industries.

KEY QUOTES:

“The rate at which MarqVision is growing illustrates the universal problem of counterfeits. Our mission is to help brands, retailers and marketplaces navigate brand and IP protection, and this latest funding raise will allow us to do just that.”

— Mark Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of MarqVision

“MarqVision is building a category-defining product in the IP protection industry using the power of AI technology. This investment allows MarqVision to accelerate its global expansion in both the U.S. and Asia.”

— JP Lee of SoftBank Ventures, which participated as the main investor in the seed round