The latest to enter the ring in the battle against online misinformation and digital deception is the Digital Deceit Project. GetReal, a startup dedicated to combating deepfakes and impersonations across audio, video, and still images, has secured $17.5 million in funding. The company was incubated at Ballistic Ventures from 2022 up until it came out of stealth mode in June of 2024. Today, it has emerged as a pivotal resource and partner for governments and businesses navigating the complex and often treacherous realm of digital authenticity.
The Series C funding was led by Forgepoint Capital, a cybersecurity- and AI-focused investor. Since then, they have raised major rounds led by Ballistic Ventures, Evolution Equity and K2 Access Fund. Those dollars will be focused on R&D, increased hiring, and scaling business operations. GetReal has big-name clients, like John Deere and Visa. Armed with this powerful support, the company is poised to continue making bold moves within regulated industries that demand high levels of security.
A Strategic Foundation
GetReal, a company incubated by Ballistic Ventures, was launched with this premise. They incubated the nonprofit startup and led its $7 million seed round. Other investors in this first round of funding included Venrock, Artisanal, Qudit and Silver Buckshot. Ted Schlein, founder of Ballistic Ventures, is instrumental in overseeing the strategic direction of GetReal, as its chairman and co-founder. His leadership has been instrumental in developing the company’s exciting new direction.
The startup's mission is clear: to provide comprehensive solutions that detect and halt the spread of deepfake technology. GetReal’s deep platform delivers a powerful forensics service. It includes a collaborative web interface, API, and cloud-enabled integrations that help teams to better connect the dots between media analysis. Financial institutions, along with other highly regulated sectors, find this capability especially alluring. With some of their operations already at risk from digital impersonations, they need trusted solutions to defend against threats.
Leadership and Expertise
At the helm, guiding GetReal’s strategic direction, is electric CEO Matt Moynahan, who came on board during the company’s stealth-mode phase. Moynahan has a proven three-decade track record of executive leadership at preeminent cybersecurity companies. He certainly comes with a remarkable depth of experience. His perspective on the state of the cybersecurity landscape helped shape his thinking about how to respond to the increasing threat posed by deepfakes.
“If you think cybersecurity is a people pipeline, just wait until you get to forensics,” said Moynahan.
This perspective underscores the critical need for skilled professionals in the field of digital forensics as deepfake technology continues to evolve.
GetReal’s multi-faceted method is based on the trailblazing experience of co-founder Hany Farid, a leader in media deepfake detection. For years Farid had been informally sharing his expertise with media companies and litigation teams. Now back on familiar turf, he is using GetReal to connect with an even larger audience. He’s got an impressive suite of tools aimed at making it more difficult to verify digital content’s authenticity.
Expanding Horizons
GetReal is one of the leading voices in advancing technology innovation. It has gotten strategic support from Cisco Investments, Capital One Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, a firm tightly connected to the CIA. These partnerships are a good vote of confidence in the startup’s capacity to execute on its claims and actually protect against new and novel threats.
Former Ducati North America CEO, Domenico Moynahan previously warned of the omnipresent deepfake scourge to grow into a “biggest threat.
To tell you the truth, I hardly recall a threat so all pervasive, he stated.
That’s a feeling that definitely resonates with the urgency I’ve seen across all industries to get out in front of digital deception with impactful countermeasures. As more enterprises realize that protecting their digital assets is paramount, GetReal’s solutions are growing in necessity.