Anti-Deepfake Startups Raise Over $120 Million as Gartner Projects Half of Enterprises Will Buy Detection Tools by 2027

At least five startups focused on detecting deepfakes, verifying human identity, and blocking AI-generated fraud have collectively raised over $120 million, according to CNBCTV18. Gartner projects that 50% of all global enterprises will actively invest in anti-deepfake and disinformation-security tools by 2027.

The capital is flowing into a category that barely existed three years ago. As generative AI drops the cost of producing synthetic media to near zero, the premium on proving authenticity is climbing in the opposite direction.

The Funding Landscape

Reality Defender, a New York-based deepfake detection firm founded in 2021, leads the cohort with approximately $52.4 million in total funding. The company upsized its Series A to $33 million in October 2024 in a round led by Illuminate Financial, with backing from Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Accenture, according to CNBCTV18. BNY, Samsung Next, and Fusion Fund contributed further strategic investments in April 2025.

Brooklyn-based imper.ai launched from stealth with $28 million from Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures, as Fortune reported. Founder Noam Awadish, formerly of autonomous vehicle developer Mobileye, said the company tracks metadata signals that attackers cannot alter, bypassing the traditional approach of scanning for visual or audio anomalies.

EarnOS announced $18.5 million in new financing on June 17, 2026, bringing its total to $23.5 million. Its Pre-Series A was led by 1kx, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and Social Graph Ventures, according to CNBCTV18. The company deploys zero-knowledge TLS to verify user actions online without exposing personal data.

Mumbai-based Protectt.ai has raised $16.6 million across three rounds, including a $9.1 million Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, per CNBCTV18 citing Tracxn data. The company claims its technology processes 2 billion mobile application sessions monthly to block an estimated 200 million fraud attempts. Hyderabad-based Deep Algorithm Solutions has raised approximately $3.2 million across two venture rounds.

European startups are also entering the market. Innerworks (London) raised €3.7 million, Trustfull (Milan) secured €6 million, and IdentifAI (Milan) raised €5 million from United Ventures, according to CNBCTV18.

The Threat Driving Demand

Accenture’s Cyber Intelligence unit reported that trading of deepfake-related software on dark web forums surged 223% year-over-year between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024, with threat actors paying up to $20,000 per minute for high-quality synthetic video tools, according to CNBCTV18. The Federal Trade Commission recorded $2.95 billion in losses tied to impersonation scams in 2024, Fortune reported.

The Agent Verification Problem

For teams deploying autonomous agents, the detection category addresses a growing operational concern. As agents interact with external systems, make API calls, and process inbound communications, they become both generators and targets of synthetic content. An agent that cannot distinguish a legitimate video call from a deepfake, or a real email from a generated one, introduces the same fraud risk that enterprises are spending millions to block on the human side.

The Gartner 50% projection suggests detection tooling will follow the same trajectory as endpoint security: from optional to table-stakes within a few years.