Dan Purcell, the founder and CEO of Ceartas, shares a harrowing experience that inspired the creation of his company. He was devastated to discover that a former partner had secretly uploaded their private videos to a pornographic site. Reflecting on the incident, Purcell recalled, “I was dating a woman in the tech industry who suggested we make some personal videos. Four or five years later, I learned they were online when she showed me the videos on her phone. It was horrifying.”
Determined to find a solution, Purcell sought services to remove the videos, only to find that most options catered to large enterprises rather than individuals. “There wasn’t anything available to assist people like me,” he noted.
In 2021, Purcell teamed up with his co-founder Jonny Smyth (now the startup's CTO) to establish Ceartas. This innovative company harnesses AI technology to enhance brand protection and anti-piracy services for content creators and brands. It has successfully raised $4.5 million in a seed round from Earlybird Venture Capital, alongside Upside VC, a fund initiated by the Sidemen, a popular YouTube influencer group.
Ceartas automates the delisting process and swiftly identifies deepfakes. Utilizing its proprietary AI platform, the company scans digital platforms for unauthorized content, including deepfakes, and initiates legal DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices for pirated materials. The platform asserts that it can reduce the visibility of infringing content on Google by an impressive 98%.
Currently targeting YouTubers and Instagram users, Purcell mentioned that as Ceartas expands into the enterprise sector, the service will adapt to address counterfeit physical goods. “We’ve leveraged our work with content creators to develop our model and build a robust dataset,” he explained.
With offices in Dublin and Berlin, Ceartas plans to establish a presence in Los Angeles and collaborates with platforms such as OnlyFans and Fanfix, a content monetization platform for creators. In addition to influencers like Sidemen, Ceartas aligns with physical goods brands that share their content on social media.
Ceartas faces competition from four main players in this space: Rulta, which provides DMCA takedown services for creators on platforms such as Twitch and OnlyFans, and BranditScan, offering similar solutions. In the B2B brand protection arena, Red Points from Barcelona boasts $106.6 million in funding, while Vobile, serving large enterprises in the film and television industry, has raised $181.6 million.
Companies that submit DMCA notices, particularly to Google, are publicly identified and scored based on their effectiveness in facilitating removals. This data is part of the Google Transparency Report and the Lumen Database.
On Google Web, where image removals aren't scored, Ceartas has successfully delisted approximately 90% to 100% of the URLs it has addressed. For comparison, Rulta stands at 63%, BranditScan at 54%, Red Points at 31%, and Vobile at 42%.
These statistics imply that AI-driven approaches may soon surpass traditional delisting methods.
Purcell emphasized, “We’ve developed our own dataset through machine learning. Our AI is contextually aware, examining the page using features like optical character recognition to detect watermarks and facial recognition. If it assesses the situation over 90%, it automatically sends a legal notice. If it falls below that, a copyright specialist will manually review it. Our legal documents are crafted by attorneys from Morrison Cooper, a law firm in LA.”
He mentioned that the firm has secured a provisional patent on their AI model, which operates independently of any third-party technology.
Purcell revealed that Ceartas chose Earlybird as their partner because the VC firm was actively seeking investments in brand protection. “We didn’t have to pitch them; they found us,” he recounted. “They had been researching this area since 2019 and didn’t find anyone able to scale and monetize effectively. So when we presented our idea, they became interested.”
Andre Retterath, a partner at Earlybird, commented, “Across the media and entertainment industry, individuals and enterprises face unprecedented piracy challenges... The advent of training AI large language models (LLMs) has contributed to the rampant use and spread of unauthorized content.”
The recent funding round also gained support from a range of angel investors, including Thomas Hesse (former president of Sony Music), Andrej Henkler (10x Founders), Michele Attisani and Niccolo Maisto (Faceit), and Ryan Morrison (Evolved Talent/Morrison Cooper), all hailing from the gaming, content creation, music, and television industries.
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