Barcelona-based online fraud prevention startup Red Points is a smart tech-based solution for brands to protect their content and identity online. Now, the world’s most widely used platform to counter online brand abuse has picked up €20 million in funding. The investment round was led by European VC IRIS (which backed Apricity) alongside existing investors Summit Partners and London-based Eight Roads. With this round, the total investment raised by the company is over €76 million from previous investors Mangrove, Northzone (London-based VC that’s invested in big tech brands including music streaming platform Spotify, BNPL scaleup Klarna), and Banc Sabadell.
Accelerate its suite of solutions
Red Points intends to use the new financing to accelerate the evolution of its AI-led technology suite and to strengthen its go-to-market strategy to meet growing customer demand as online fraud and brand abuse continue to escalate worldwide.
Laura Urquizu, Red Points’ CEO & President, said “The OECD estimates that counterfeit goods cost the global economy over €450 billion a year, and this is just one of many rising threats that brands and consumers face in digital. Red Points enables companies to bring back revenue and brand equity lost to fraud, and this new funding will help us accelerate the adoption of the technologies that make it happen effectively.”
“Companies are struggling to catch up with the explosion of brand fraud and emerging forms of threats. With its unique automated and highly scalable platform, Red Points is leading the digitalization of the anti-fraud space”, added Itziar Estevez Latasa, Partner at IRIS, who has joined the company’s Board of Directors, which will now count with gender parity. “We’ve been impressed with Red Points’ ability to address customers’ needs across industries by focusing on
the most harmful infringements and untapping hidden fraudulent networks. We are very proud to be part of this journey”.
Eyes to make the internet a safer place
Red Points was founded in late 2011 by Josep Coll, an intellectual property lawyer. David Casellas joined Red Points team in 2012 as a co-founder after working for FC Barcelona for over two years. The founder left the company some years ago, now led by CEO Laura Urquizu, who joined in 2014 with previous experience in corporates including Arthur Andersen, Caja Navarra, and Corporación CAN.
Further, the Spanish startup also operates from New York, Salt Lake City, and Beijing and has a team of over 300 professionals. The company claims to have adopted an almost even gender ratio with nearly 45% female employees and has over 30 nationalities represented across positions.
Standard for digital revenue recovery
The SaaS’ Revenue Recovery Platform offers robust online brand protection, providing visibility across online marketplaces, social media, websites, apps, and NFT platforms. Working with global brands across fashion, sports, consumer goods, homeware, finance, electronics, and software, Red Points’ customers include Hugo Boss, Electrolux, Fila, Real Madrid, LOWA Sportschuhe, and Puma.
Red Points’ Brand Protection software helps find, track, and remove counterfeit listings and sellers. It uses advanced brand protection tools to detect and process thousands of Intellectual Property (IP) infringements automatically and tackle the most harmful offenders first. It looks for infringements with bot-powered search through text and images every second, 24/7.