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Clearview AI is currently the target of multiple class action lawsuits and joint UK and Australian investigations. This did not keep investors away.
New York-based start-up scraping billions of photos from the public internet facial recognition tool Used by law enforcement, it closed a $30 million Series B round this month.
Investors did not want their identities to be revealed, although the lawsuits did not deter them. The company’s CEO, Hoan Ton-That, said these “include institutional investors and private family offices”.
Previous investors include Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire; Kirenaga Partners, a New York-based venture capital firm; and Hal Lambert, the Texas-based creator of the MAGA ETF, a mutual fund that is itself composed of companies “aligned with Republican beliefs.”
The round includes $8.6 million previously disclosed and reported in an SEC filing. Buzzfeed. Founded in 2017, the company currently has over $38 million at a valuation of $130 million.
It’s not just a facial recognition startup that’s caught investors’ attention. AnyVision, an Israel-based competitor, $235 million this month In a softbank-led financing round.
Claiming to have a database of three billion photos of people gathered from sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Venmo, Clearview AI charges subscription fees from law enforcement agencies to use its product. Searching for someone’s face makes it possible to identify them by revealing other photos of the same person with links to where they appear on the web. More than 1,800 law enforcement agencies have used Clearview’s product, according to a leaked list of users obtained by Buzzfeed. one The latest report by the US Government Accountability Office Clearview found that AI was used by 10 federal agencies, including the Secret Service and the FBI.
The company’s product was accepted illegal in canada, and it happens jointly researched Due to the use of citizens’ personal information by the UK and Australia. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company in the US, with one accusing the company of violating that state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, which stipulates that companies must obtain permission from people to use fingerprints or include them in facial recognition databases.
“We’ve had some good news in the legal battles,” said Mr. Ton-That, referring to a federal judge’s decision to reject a request to ban the company from doing business pending the outcome of the Illinois lawsuit. “Airbnb, Uber, PayPal had a significant legal component in their operations. People forget about it when the company is much bigger. Investors can see that it’s just part of doing business.”
“Clearview will stay here,” he added.
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