When Mark Lee was a regulation scholar at Harvard, a trademark class uncovered him to the staggering scale of counterfeiting, a bootleg trade price greater than $3 trillion yearly, and set him on an sudden path to entrepreneurship.
“I used to be at all times broadly interested by expertise and startups, however I by no means actually thought I’d be an entrepreneur. I assumed I used to be set to change into a lawyer; most of my relations are legal professionals, and training regulation felt like a pure path,” Lee mentioned in an unique interview with Trendster. However when he obtained to Harvard Regulation, the schooling wasn’t fairly what he anticipated, Lee mentioned, including that he started to query whether or not a profession as a company lawyer was the proper match.
“So I began exploring completely different concepts. Sooner or later, I took a trademark class and realized that counterfeiting is the world’s largest prison enterprise, $3 trillion in counterfeit merchandise traded yearly, about 8% of worldwide commerce. What struck me was that in COVID, as all the pieces was transferring on-line, this already large market was rising 20% a 12 months, fueled by marketplaces and social media,” Lee continued. “I noticed it as a common drawback—and one which could possibly be solved with the expertise I used to be captivated with on the time: pc imaginative and prescient.”
That perception turned the seed for MarqVision, the corporate he later co-founded in 2021. The identify itself displays its origins: “Marq” from trademark, and “Imaginative and prescient” from pc imaginative and prescient. The mission was easy however formidable: harness AI-powered pc imaginative and prescient to combat counterfeiting and trademark infringement on a worldwide scale.
Quick ahead to 2025 and the LA-headquartered AI startup has closed a $48 million Sequence B spherical, bringing its complete capital raised to about $90 million.
Roughly half of the contemporary capital will go towards increasing its AI and engineering groups to speed up automation and combine generative AI throughout its product suite. One other $10 million is earmarked for making the platform enterprise-ready as the corporate strikes upmarket to focus on bigger manufacturers, whereas a further $10 million will fund regional growth. Already energetic within the U.S., Korea, China, and Europe, MarqVision is now getting into Japan, highlighting the borderless nature of IP regulation and the corporate’s push to scale globally.
The financing was led by Peak XV Companions — previously Sequoia Capital India & SEA — with participation from Salesforce Ventures, HSG (previously Sequoia China), Coral Capital, and Michael Seibel, accomplice emeritus at Y Combinator. Returning backers, together with YC, Altos Ventures, and Atinum Funding, additionally joined the spherical.
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“More and more, top-tier buyers are in search of expertise firms that leverage AI not simply to reinforce productiveness, however to essentially rework service supply,” Lee defined. “AI is increasing the whole addressable marketplace for software program from effectivity instruments into the execution of the work itself — unlocking a market alternative of over $10 trillion. Whereas many early-stage firms are experimenting with AI to disrupt labor-intensive service industries, only a few have reached the early development stage with the size and traction.”
MarqVision serves greater than 350 clients worldwide throughout industries starting from style and luxurious to gaming, prescription drugs, leisure, automotive, and client electronics. The startup reached $1 million in annual recurring income inside eight months, $10 million in three years, and just lately crossed $20 million after 4 years, doubling yearly alongside the way in which.
“Our purpose is $100M ARR by mid-2027,” Lee mentioned. “Development might have been sooner, however we prioritized two issues: delivering one of the best buyer expertise and constructing a scalable AI-driven basis. As a managed service, we will monetize many choices, however all the pieces ties again to 1 core promise—serving to international manufacturers management their digital presence and develop income.”
As soon as thought-about an unappealing class in expertise, “providers” is being redefined by AI, which brings software-like scalability and effectivity. This shift has fueled investor curiosity, with Peak XV, HSG, and Salesforce Ventures backing the corporate’s imaginative and prescient. The rise of enormous language fashions has reframed its positioning from a “software program firm with people within the loop” to a pacesetter within the rising AI-led providers area, drawing sturdy competitors in its newest funding spherical.
MarqVision began out preventing counterfeits, utilizing AI to identify and take away faux merchandise on-line. Because the expertise superior, the startup shifted its focus towards serving to manufacturers immediately get well misplaced income. Right this moment, many purchasers report a roughly 5% increase in gross sales, making the platform precious not simply to authorized groups but in addition to go-to-market organizations monitoring income affect, in accordance with Lee.
When Lee first pitched MarqVision, he envisioned a $5 billion software program firm, promoting $50,000 instruments to 10,000 IP groups worldwide. However YC accomplice Michael Seibel urged him to suppose larger — past software program — by reimagining how IP and model professionals work. MarqVision has since expanded into end-to-end managed providers, a possibility Lee now believes is 100 occasions bigger than his unique plan.
Model safety usually includes detecting and eradicating infringements like counterfeits and impersonations, whereas model management goes additional, giving firms the power to handle their presence throughout e-commerce, social media, web sites, and chat platforms, Lee famous. Trying forward, the roadmap consists of model intelligence, providing insights into provide chains, pricing methods, and reseller networks.
“Our imaginative and prescient is to be the spine of each international model that owns IP — turning into the AI-led providers platform for IP, content material, and model professionals worldwide,” Lee mentioned.
