If there’s anything that’s dominated the societal discourse over social media for the past ten years, it’s misinformation. From large-scale online events like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the anti-vax movement to smaller, lower-stakes campaigns (think fake celebrity news), every single one of us has been affected in some way by misinformation, whether or not we’d like to admit it.
We can continue to discuss all day long about the societal and political impact that misinformation has had, but ultimately there are companies and organizations who are (unfairly) losing billions of dollars as a result of misinformation, and that in and of itself is a massive problem. For companies and organizations, misinformation negatively affects revenue streams, and harms reputations that have taken a lifetime to build. These attacks happen far more frequently than you’d think– such as when Pepsi lost 4% market share in one day after fake news about an anti-Trump statement by its CEO in 2016 or when a fake video about an autonomous Tesla killing a robot went viral in 2019, both of which could have been caught before going mainstream with VineSight’s technology.
Today, we have the pleasure of introducing our latest 25madison Ventures investment in VineSight, a platform that tracks, analyzes and mitigates online misinformation and toxicity against companies and organizations. We’ve invested alongside our friends at Lightbank and AnD Ventures, our partner firm based in Israel.
VineSight was founded by a group of talented AI researchers and data scientists out of Tel Aviv and is led by CEO Gideon Blocq, whose PhD research at the Technion in game theory led him to start VineSight. When we met Gideon, we were blown away by his technical expertise and entrepreneurial drive.
VineSight’s platform leverages AI to identify suspicious share patterns across Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, Tiktok, and other platforms. While other companies like Vinesight have attempted to address the spread of misinformation, they focus on the content and oftentimes miss when the sentiment is spread through other languages, GIFs, memes, or deepfakes. VineSight’s novel approach focuses on share patterns rather than the content itself, resulting in a 99% positive identification rate across mediums and languages, paving the way for people to take faster action before the spread goes too far unchecked. In addition, the platform uses the same method to help companies and organizations uncover and amplify authentic positive stories in their early stages so they can engage with or promote them.
Vinesight has already impressed some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, Ivy League universities, Fortune 500 companies, blue chip PR firms, and major political organizations. We heard over and over again from their customers that VineSight’s technology is a game-changer. It’s helped their organizations monitor, detect, and mitigate misinformation attacks. Instead of constantly being on the defense, Vinesight has made them offensive players, ready to knockout attacks as soon as they strike.
It’s clear (unfortunately) that misinformation attacks aren’t going anywhere, and reputable companies and organizations can no longer risk their names. Gideon and the VineSight team are the right people to tackle this problem, and we are super excited to join them in the journey towards a safer and fairer future online.
With $4m in fresh seed funding, VineSight plans to double down on R&D and build out a sales team and presence in the US– so if you’re looking to join a new mission-oriented company, please reach out!
Raising a pre-seed or seed? Shoot me a note at jaja@25madison.com
