Six years ago, we set out on an uncertain journey — to build trust, safety, and integrity in a seemingly insurmountable sea of disinformation. As a team of scrappy technologists, we harnessed our collective skills and began to relentlessly push the limits of AI to detect and combat narrative manipulation and online harms. Over the years we pioneered Narrative & Risk Intelligence and have provided our customers with a technology that provides something that is hard to come by in today’s landscape - peace of mind. Today, we are accelerating our efforts with a $20 million Series B funding round, bringing our total funding to $32 million.
We are privileged to align our course with Ten Eleven Ventures, a torchbearer in cybersecurity investment. Early supporters of our vision included Dorilton Ventures, Generation Capital, StartFast Ventures, and Trousdale Ventures who continued their support in this round. Their collective faith underscores our belief in Blackbird as a vanguard of security, affirming our commitment to combating what we think of as cyberattacks on human perception.
The landscape of digital threats has mutated, evolving beyond our devices, and breaching our most sacred resource — that of our minds and the ability to think and act of our own will. Misinformation and narrative manipulation have been steadily on the rise for years and today they are supercharged by the meteoric ascension of generative AI. These previously unseen information driven threats infiltrate sectors, professions far and wide and they infiltrate human perception. While traditional cybersecurity concentrates on network vulnerabilities, our technology thrusts the human risk element out of the shadows and into the light. Our goal is to provide organizations with our peerless technology, cultivating an environment of trust, safety, and integrity, and granting them a strategic decision making edge against a growing number of AI equipped adversaries.
Narrative manipulation is not just a breach of trust; it carries a substantial financial toll. An estimate from 2019 casts the global cost of disinformation at an eye-watering $78 billion per annum. Companies are losing an estimated $39 billion annually due to disinformation-induced market losses, requiring industries and individuals to be on perpetual guard.
Blackbird.AI's Constellation Platform has been a guiding light for many of the world's largest at-risk organizations. Our unique, solutions-focused technology platform uncovers the subtle risk markers in content and maps their spread across complex information networks. Constellation's unique ability to detect emergent narratives, comprehend their risks, and analyze their propagation across diverse mediums sets it apart from anything else available on the market today.
Blackbird has always been about pushing the boundaries of technology, and this new funding round allows us to go even further. It's the fuel we need to keep attracting the very best, multidisciplinary talent – the outliers who aren't afraid to tackle the world's most daunting problems, but run at them.
As we look to the future, we're filled with a sense of unshakeable optimism and determination. Many might see our task as an impossible one, but at Blackbird, we thrive on doing the impossible. We're standing on the frontline in the battle against information warfare, armed with the technology and the team needed to help the world battle warped realities. We're not just here to disrupt industries or become the next unicorn company. Our goal is loftier – to safeguard the integrity of information in our global ecosystem.
To our exceptional team, our loyal customers, our innovative partners, and supportive investors - Thank You. Your belief in our mission is the backbone of our success. Let's continue this incredible journey together.
Wings Up!
Read a post by Dave Palmer, GP at Ten Eleven Ventures - Why We Invested in Blackbird.AI
Read TechCrunch coverage
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