When Mark Lee was a legislation scholar at Harvard, a trademark class uncovered him to the staggering scale of counterfeiting, a bootleg business price greater than $3 trillion yearly, and set him on an sudden path to entrepreneurship.

“I used to be all the time broadly all in favour of know-how and startups, however I by no means actually thought I’d be an entrepreneur. I assumed I used to be set to develop into a lawyer; most of my members of the family are legal professionals, and training legislation felt like a pure path,” Lee stated in an unique interview with TechCrunch. However when he acquired to Harvard Regulation, the training wasn’t fairly what he anticipated, Lee stated, including that he started to query whether or not a profession as a company lawyer was the best match.

“So I began exploring completely different concepts. Someday, I took a trademark class and discovered that counterfeiting is the world’s largest felony enterprise, $3 trillion in counterfeit merchandise traded yearly, about 8% of worldwide commerce. What struck me was that in COVID, as every thing 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 might be solved with the know-how I used to be obsessed with on the time: laptop imaginative and prescient.”

That perception grew to become the seed for MarqVision, the corporate he later co-founded in 2021. The title itself displays its origins: “Marq” from trademark, and “Imaginative and prescient” from laptop imaginative and prescient. The mission was simple however bold: harness AI-powered laptop imaginative and prescient to struggle counterfeiting and trademark infringement on a worldwide scale.

Quick ahead to 2025 and the LA-headquartered AI startup has closed a $48 million Collection B spherical, bringing its whole capital raised to about $90 million.

Roughly half of the recent 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 coming into Japan, highlighting the borderless nature of IP legislation 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, companion emeritus at Y Combinator. Returning backers, together with YC, Altos Ventures, and Atinum Funding, additionally joined the spherical.

“More and more, top-tier traders are on the lookout for know-how firms that leverage AI not simply to boost productiveness, however to basically remodel service supply,” Lee defined. “AI is increasing the full 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 progress stage with the dimensions and traction.”

MarqVision serves greater than 350 clients worldwide throughout industries starting from style and luxurious to gaming, prescribed 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 best way.

“Our purpose is $100M ARR by mid-2027,” Lee stated. “Progress might have been quicker, however we prioritized two issues: delivering the very best buyer expertise and constructing a scalable AI-driven basis. As a managed service, we are able to monetize many choices, however every thing ties again to at least one core promise—serving to international manufacturers management their digital presence and develop income.”

As soon as thought of an unappealing class in know-how, “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 robust competitors in its newest funding spherical.

MarqVision began out preventing counterfeits, utilizing AI to identify and take away faux merchandise on-line. Because the know-how superior, the startup shifted its focus towards serving to manufacturers immediately get well misplaced income. As we speak, many purchasers report a roughly 5% increase in gross sales, making the platform helpful not simply to authorized groups but additionally to go-to-market organizations monitoring income affect, in keeping 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 companion 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 instances bigger than his authentic plan.

Model safety sometimes entails 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. Wanting 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 — changing into the AI-led providers platform for IP, content material, and model professionals worldwide,” Lee stated.