Loti AI secures $6.65M seed funding to combat deepfake threats for celebrities

Digital likeness protection technology startup Loti AI has announced an additional investment from Khosla Ventures, increasing its total seed funding to $6.65 million. The round was led by FUSE and Bling Capital, with support from K5 Tokyo Black, Ensemble, and AlphaEdison.

Loti AI specializes in safeguarding celebrities and public figures from the growing threat of misleading and manipulated digital content. The company’s technology addresses issues such as deepfakes, voice simulations, and unauthorized distribution of likenesses, which can severely damage an individual’s brand and reputation.

Founded in 2022, Loti AI technology comes as research found that 49 percent of global businesses have encountered audio or video deepfake fraud over the past year. According to findings from the “Deepfake Trends 2024” survey commissioned by Regula, there has been a 20 percent rise in video deepfakes and a 12 percent increase in audio deepfakes compared to the previous report.

The firm’s two primary offerings, Loti Watchtower and Loti Enforce, enable clients to detect, identify, and remove unlicensed or malicious content from the web. Loti has partnered with the likes of talent agencies such as WME.

Founder and CEO Luke Arrigoni highlights the increasing risks posed by digital manipulation: “Content on the internet is uncontrolled, easily manipulated, distributed or faked – and anyone can do it. Loti protects celebrities and other public figures from misleading and manipulated images, videos, and audio that can undermine and even destroy their brand and reputation.”

According to the company, Loti’s technology scans over 450 million digital assets daily across social media and the broader web, and is designed to automatically identify and remove harmful content. Loti’s auto-takedown functionality boasts a 95 percent success rate, with unauthorized material being removed within 17 hours on average.

The company’s AI architecture works in the background to remove unauthorized content, with the goal of safeguarding its clients’ online presence.

Jon Chu of Khosla Ventures emphasizes the significance of Loti’s platform: “AI deepfakes and unauthorized content have become a cornerstone challenge in the age of GenAI. Influencers, politicians, and celebrities will need to grapple with this new reality. Loti is already protecting the largest celebrities in the world, and Luke and his team have built the only platform capable of stopping misinformation, fraud, and scams both in real-time and at scale.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  deepfake detection  |  fraud prevention  |  funding  |  investment  |  Loti AI