Blackbird.AI, a leading provider of AI-driven Narrative and Risk Intelligence, has successfully raised $20 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by cybersecurity investor Ten Eleven Ventures, with continued support from existing investors including Dorilton Capital, Generation Ventures, StartFast Ventures, and Trousdale Ventures.
Notable individuals such as Paul Kurtz, chief cybersecurity advisor to Splunk, and Richard Clarke, the former “cyber czar” for the U.S. Government, also participated in the funding round. This latest investment brings Blackbird.AI’s total funding to $32 million.
The prevalence of disinformation has become a pressing issue, with estimated global costs reaching $78 billion per year in 2019. Publicly traded companies alone suffer approximately $39 billion in stock market losses annually due to disinformation-related incidents.
The emergence of generative AI exacerbates this problem, as it provides unprecedented scalability for disinformation campaigns, putting chief communication officers (CCOs), chief information security officers (CISOs), and the intelligence community on high alert.
Blackbird.AI aims to empower organizations by helping them understand and address the threats posed by perception manipulation, which often go unnoticed. By fostering an environment of trust, safety, and integrity, Blackbird.AI provides significant strategic and competitive advantages to its clients, including strategic communicators, risk managers, and information security teams.
With its roots in the defense community since 2019, Blackbird.AI’s platform brings together security and communications teams to detect and track deliberate manipulation of digital narratives. By analyzing text, images, and memes across the dark web, social media, news platforms, and more, Blackbird.AI’s Constellation Platform detects narratives, identifies associated risks, and tracks their propagation in over 25 languages.
This comprehensive approach enables organizations to react swiftly to a range of attacks and provides them with AI-powered insights to counter disinformation campaigns effectively.
Blackbird.AI has already made significant contributions to national security efforts, particularly in assisting government organizations during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company’s platform has also proven critical for crisis services at communications firm Weber Shandwick.
The recent funding will allow Blackbird.AI to scale its sales and marketing efforts, expand its customer base, raise industry awareness, and drive innovation in enhancing its Constellation Platform and RAV3N Co-Pilot, a cutting-edge Generative AI reporting module that accelerates insights and recommendations.
Additionally, the company will continue to grow its ecosystem through the Blackbird Global Alliance Program.
Dave Palmer, General Partner of Ten Eleven Ventures and former co-founder and chief product officer at Darktrace, has joined Blackbird.AI’s board of directors. Palmer emphasizes the need for organizations to address deliberate and accidental disinformation, highlighting the importance of advanced security measures beyond traditional infrastructure and application security technologies.
Blackbird.AI’s comprehensive approach aims to protect the global information ecosystem and combat the growing threat of disinformation.
