LetsData, an AI-based service that protects companies and government organizations from information operations, as well as tracks, analyzes, and forecasts information in the media space, has raised $1.6 million in investment.
According to the company, the first round of investment has now been raised, as the service has been developing at its own expense.
The LetsData product is already used by security and information security departments of companies and government agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The service monitors social networks and the Internet, detects attacks at an early stage in real time, and sends customers warnings about them. The confirmation rate of detected threats is 97%.
At this stage, the Ukrainian startup managed to raise funds from the following investors: SMOK Ventures, Wayra (part of the telecommunications company Telefónica), Tilia Impact Ventures (with the support of the InvestEU Fund), 1991 Ventures, Google's Ukraine Support Fund, and Startup Wise Guys.
"We’re also honored to have the support of angel investors like Pavla Bobosikova (CEO and co-founder at WFHomie, acquired by GoCo) and Marty Krátký-Katz (CEO and co-founder at Blockthrough, acquired by eyeo). With this funding, we are poised to further expand our presence in the United States and Europe and enhance our technology to meet the surging demand for advanced InfoOps detection solutions. Our solution processes open-source data from over 100 million websites and social media platforms in more than 50 languages and regions. With advanced semantic AI models, we analyze text and video metadata from platforms like Telegram, YouTube, and TikTok, uncovering the intent behind coordinated malicious campaigns. Our solution detects 80% more threats at their inception than traditional tools, empowering organizations to act decisively before reputational or operational harm occurs," LetsData said in a statement.
According to the project's co-founder, Andriy Kusyy, the funding will allow the company to scale its impact and ensure that organizations around the world are better prepared to withstand IPSO.
| Reference: The LetsData project, headquartered in New York (USA), which has developed a kind of AI radar against information operations and disinformation, was founded in 2022 by Andriy Kusyy (CEO) and Ksenia Iliuk (COO). Andriy Kusyy is a physics graduate of Lviv University, specializing in machine learning and AI. Previously, he worked at Grammarly as an Engineering Manager. Ksenia Iliuk studied international information at Chernivtsi National University. She specializes in media analysis and strategic communications. Previously, she worked at the Internews Ukraine think tank and headed the research department at Detector Media. LetsData's solutions are focused on the B2B and B2G segments, and the target audience is large companies and government institutions facing high risks. The startup operates on a SaaS model - users pay for a subscription. The customer can choose the following functions: alerts - the price depends on the number of topics and countries selected for monitoring; a coordination communication system - the cost depends on the number of users per customer; reports - the price depends on the number of countries, topics, and frequency of reports. |
According to Forbes Ukraine, since its founding in June 2022, the startup has increased revenues by 296% to more than $67,000 per month and plans to gain a share of the $500 billion information security market. In two years of self-financing, the startup has reached $1 million in ARR. LetsData's technology is used by the FCDO, British embassies, the NATO Armed Forces, as well as companies in the US, UK, and Europe.
The company's goal for the next two years is to reach $2.5 million in annual revenue, Kusyi told Forbes Ukraine in July 2024. The startup's founders plan to move away from consulting clients and sell solutions directly to companies or government organizations. The startup prioritizes industries where reputation is important: finance, insurance, and large consumer brands.
As we wrote earlier, LetsData recently became one of 24 startups to receive funding from the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund, a Google support fund for startups in Ukraine. Each startup received up to $100,000 in equity funding, as well as mentoring and product support from Google.