— The investment round is co-led by the Dutch fund Knight Capital along with the Spanish-Israeli Swanlaab Venture Factory and the CDTI.
— Smart Protection is a Spanish company dedicated to the protection of brands against counterfeits and brand abuse online.
— With this new investment the company will continue adding the best global talent to keep developing its technological platform.
Smart Protection has closed a Series B funding round worth €10 million, co-led by the Dutch firm Knight Capital, the Spanish-Israeli Swanlaab Venture Factory, specialized in SaaS B2B, alongside CDTI, the Spanish National Innovation Agency.
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Existing investors Nauta Capital, JME Ventures, Bankinter, Big Sur Ventures and Telefónica, through their new investment vehicle Telefónica Tech Ventures specialized in the field of cybersecurity, have also participated in the investment process.
Smart Protection has now received funding totaling more than €20 million to combat piracy and counterfeiting on the internet through its technological platform.
Commenting on the investment Javier Perea, the CEO and co-founder of Smart Protection, said, “With this investment, we will accelerate our international expansion and broaden our technological solutions to protect brands from reputational damage and the loss of profits that counterfeits online cause.”
Even in times of COVID-19, the Spanish scale-up has experienced rapid growth in 2020, which is reflected in doubling of its turnover compared to 2019 results. Smart Protection currently works with clients across 25 countries, and 76% of its income is generated from companies outside of Spain.
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“Piracy and online counterfeiting are a problem on a global scale,” says Diederik Ingen Housz, Managing Partner of Knight Capital. “Smart Protection is one of the few companies in the world with the technology capable of addressing this issue.”
Smart Protection continues to form one of the best engineering teams in the world, and this round allows them to continue adding the brightest talent. This in turn will boost the development of its technological platform with the highest level of experience, and the latest advancements in artificial intelligence.
Mark Kavelaars, Managing Partner of Swanlaab Venture Factory states that “We are looking for solid companies formed by teams capable of becoming global leaders in their category, competing with the best technology and with products that generate a positive long-term impact on society. Smart Protection fulfills this purpose, and we believe that it will be the benchmark for its category.”
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