Knight Capital leads €10m series-B for Smart Protection

Swanlaab Venture Factory and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) also took part in the investment, alongside previous backers Nauta Capital, JME Ventures, Bankinter, Big Sur Ventures and Telefónica, via Telefónica Tech Ventures.

Following the deal, the company's founders will retain a stake of around 50%, while Nauta will remain the larger VC investor, followed by Knight Capital and Swanlaab.

The company intends to use the fresh capital to boost its international expansion, further develop its technology and scale up its team to 150 staff by June 2021.

Previous funding
Smart Protection raised seed funding of €760,000 in July 2017 and €880,000 in January 2019 from Wayra (Telefónica's open innovation hub), JME, Bankinter and Big Sur.

Nauta led a €5.2m series-A funding round for the company in September 2019. Previous backers Wayra, JME Ventures, Bankinter and Big Sur also participated in the round.

Company
Founded in 2015 and based in Madrid, Smart Protection specialises in online content and brand protection.

Its platform detects and eliminates brand and product infringements on the internet using data technologies. The startup then analyses the gathered information using machine-learning technology to eliminate infringements at 95% efficiency.

The company claims to be able to take down links used for piracy or counterfeiting in a matter of hours and to have de-listed 11 million hyperlinks on Google so far.

Its client base includes TV and media publishers based in 18 countries across Europe, the US and Latin America, such as Warner Brothers, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, among others. 

People
Smart Protection – Javier Perea (co-founder, CEO).

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