US AI-powered intellectual property governance start-up CopySight has secured $3m in seed funding.
The financing was led by venture capital and seed investor Mucker Capital, alongside Taisu VC, Flint Capital and early-stage tech investor Yellow Rocks.
CopySight is an AI-powered platform that helps businesses check whether AI-generated images could create copyright or trademark problems before they use them.
The funding will be used to expand the company’s “proprietary scoring architecture” into enterprise video production pipelines.
It says that it is working with major Hollywood studios on IP hygiene, review and validation workflows, helping strengthen content risk management. Since January this year it has processed 87,000 copyright and IP risk checks related to trademarks, characters, brand and iconic designs, celebrity likenesses, and art and styles,
Artem Petrov, co-founder and CEO of CopySight, said: “AI has completely unlocked how we create, but hitting a piece of protected IP is just a factual reality of the process right now.
“We built CopySight to clear the path for it. Foundational models, Hollywood studios, individual creators, everyone downstream needs the exact same thing: objective proof that what they just made is safe to ship. We want AI to scale, reach its potential and we are here to help protect everyone on that mission.”
David Borcsok, partner at Mucker Capital, commented that investors view CopySight as “defining the IP layer” for gen AI and modern content creation.
He added: “AI cannot scale without trust. They are addressing the essential capabilities around risk and ownership that will only become more critical as AI evolves.”
The company recently launched CopyScore V2, a risk rating system for gen AI images that reviews whether an image may infringe copyright, trademarks or intellectual property, helping businesses make safer decisions before using it commercially.
A client may have to redesign a logo if it is considered high risk and closely resembles an existing trademark.
California-based CopySight was founded two years ago by Petrov alongside CTO Konstantin Orlov.
Petrov was formerly Meta’s tech creative director for a year before he co-established CopySight, while Orlov was previously a software engineer at Apple for almost three years.
The company’s advisors include Doug Shapiro, a former chief strategy officer at Turner and WarnerMedia, alongside Nvidia senior research manager Tomasz Kornuta and Greg Coleman, global head of marketing and franchise at Amazon.
Other recent early-stage investment rounds have included US AI litigation platform start-up Turbo Law, which secured $3.8m in pre-seed funding in June.
The financing was led by Turkish technology investment firm Revo Capital alongside US venture capital firm Treeo VC, early-stage AI fund BridgeX Ventures and Alchemist Accelerator, a venture-backed initiative that focuses on seed-stage funding.
And in May, London-based AI legaltech start-up Crimson, which was co-founded last year by former Willkie Farr & Gallagher associate Mark Feldner, secured £2.5m in an oversubscribed seed funding round.
Contributors included start-up investor Y Combinator, along with venture capital firms Symphony Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures, Amino Capital, Eight Capital, Scale Asia Ventures and Progressive Ventures.
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