MarqVision Raises $20M to Stop Online Counterfeiters

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

MarqVision Raises $20M to Stop Online Counterfeiters
Image Courtesy of MarqVision

Any Angeleno who’s been duped by a false designer item in the Fashion District understands the value of knowing exactly what is on sale – especially since to the average untrained eye, it’s hard to tell the difference between an authentic and a scam.


As ecommerce continues to grow and the global market is expected to hit $5.5 trillion this year, more brands are turning to digital loss prevention to stem losses – and prevent getting a bad rap for faulty fake products.

One local startup based in West Hollywood is betting that using artificial intelligence is the key to identifying counterfeit items and removing them from the marketplace by scanning over 1,500 online retailers across 115 different countries and comparing the minute details of their products to original items in order to weed out fakes.

MarqVision raised $20 million this week to continue developing its software that scans for counterfeit items in a bid to prevent fraud. It will also use the funding to expand its operations, with plans to open its first European outpost in Paris this fall (the company already has offices in Boston and South Korea).

The MarqVision platform. Image of what the MarqVision platform looks like. Image Courtesy of Marqvision

The company was incubated and funded by Y Combinator and launched two years ago. According to Pitchbook data, it has raised just over $28 million following this round from investors including SoftBank and South Korean firm Bass Investment.

CEO and Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Mark Lee co-founded MarqVision with Chief Business Officer Do Kyung Lee in 2020. Since then the company’s attracted clients including Niantic’s Pokemon, Seoul-based jewelers Didier Dubot and Ralph Lauren. MarqVision claims it removed $1 million worth of counterfeit Ralph Lauren merchandise in online marketplaces aimed at Korean shoppers as part of a case study.

Lee told TechCrunch Tuesday that the platform has a 97% accuracy rate and claimed the software can “process thousands of reports every hour” without the need for humans manually sorting and filing the paperwork to brands once they detect a fraudulent item. He also hinted that alongside physical merchandise, MarqVision might soon expand its platform’s capability to recognize counterfeit NFTs.

“Creative assets are under assault in today’s digital world, with content owners left largely unprotected as consumers get hoodwinked into buying fake goods and NFTs by sophisticated counterfeiters,” Lee told TechCrunch. “Unlike our competitors, which are forced to review manually in time-consuming processes, MarqVision’s process end-to-end is mostly automated.”

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Astrolab's New SpaceX-backed Rover Could Change Space Exploration Forever

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
Astrolab's New SpaceX-backed Rover Could Change Space Exploration Forever
Photo by Samson Amore

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

Local Los Angeles-area startup Astrolab Inc. has designed a new lunar vehicle called FLEX, short for Flexible Logistics and Exploration Rover. About the size of a Jeep Wrangler, FLEX is designed to move cargo around the surface of the moon on assignment. It’s a bit larger than NASA’s Mars rovers, like Perseverance, but as it’s designed for transport and mobility rather than precision measurement, it can travel much faster, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour across the lunar surface.

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Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn
Creatorland

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

LinkedIn hasn’t caught on with Gen Z—in fact, 96% rarely use their existing account.

Considering 25% of young people want to be full-time content creators and most influencers aren’t active on LinkedIn, traditional networking sites aren’t likely to meet these needs.

Enter CreatorLand.

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https://twitter.com/ksnyder_db

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M
This Week in ‘Raises’:

It has been a slow week in funding, but a local decentralized computing network managed to land $9 million to accelerate deployment of its new product called Universal Communication Identifier (UCID™). Another local company that secured capital included Kevin Costner’s location-based audio storytelling platform and the funding will go toward expanding the app’s content library and expanding into additional regions in the United States.

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