Midnight Labs Announces Investment from Sony Innovation Fund to Lead AI-Powered IP Enforcement and Content Protection
Midnight Labs, the market leader in predictive IP protection for entertainment, gaming and content industries, today announced an investment from the Sony Innovation Fund. The investment will fuel the expansion of Midnight Labs’ agentic Enforcement Engine to protect high-value entertainment IP from mass piracy, deepfakes and AI-generated infringement in the U.S. and Japanese markets.
Video piracy alone will drive an estimated $125 billion in annual revenue leakage by 2028. Dubbed “The Internet’s Delete Button,” Midnight Labs delivers automated enforcement workflows that once took weeks in minutes, performing 120 hours of scanning, detection, analysis, verification and removal in just 60 seconds. To date, Midnight Labs has removed more than 2.8 billion pieces of infringing content, protecting the world’s largest streaming platforms, podcast networks, talent agencies and Fortune 100 executives. Through its creator-focused product, Ceartas (/ˈkar-tɪs/, the Irish word for justice), Midnight Labs also protects the world’s biggest content creators and creator-economy brands. Unlike traditional legacy solutions that focus on counterfeit goods, Midnight Labs focuses on the content that most directly undermines revenue and erodes reputation, including pirated films, leaked music, cloned livestreams, and weaponized deepfakes targeting talent and executives.
“Generative AI has industrialized piracy, exposing IP holders to both financial loss and real-time reputational damage,” said Dan Purcell, CEO and founder of Midnight Labs. “A single deepfake of a CEO, created in seconds and distributed across thousands of sites, can cause immediate, catastrophic harm before a legal team can even open a ticket. Traditional digital rights management built on manual processes simply cannot keep pace with AI-generated infringement, leaving legal and content protection teams overwhelmed. We make enforcement autonomous by scanning, detecting, proving and removing stolen content faster than it can spread, returning control to IP holders over their content, reputation and revenue. The backing of Sony Innovation Fund accelerates that mission.”
Court-Admissible Evidence at Scale.
Midnight Labs is the first enforcement platform that integrates legal-grade evidence collection directly into an automated pipeline. The platform backs every takedown with a forensic evidence bundle, including time-stamped screenshots, cryptographic hashes, HTML source archives and full network records. This approach turns enforcement from a reactive legal chore into a proactive asset for rights holders and ensures IP holders receive litigation-ready documentation without manual work.
Protecting the Full IP Chain.
Midnight Labs secures the full IP chain against generative AI misuse, deepfakes and piracy, including creator content, brand identity, NILV (Name/Image/Likeness/Voice), character likeness, studio assets, and audio/video content, including live streams. The platform continuously scans more than 75 million sources, including the dark web and non-compliant platforms, identifies threats in real time and automates takedowns, filings and compliance workflows. Critically, Midnight Labs does not rely on external AI models, ensuring full privacy, security and control of sensitive material.
Market Expansion in Japan and APAC.
Manga remains the most pirated content globally, and sophisticated digital piracy syndicates operate at unprecedented scale in Japan, making the country uniquely vulnerable to AI-generated copyright infringement. The investment from the Sony Innovation Fund accelerates Midnight Labs’ expansion in Japan and across APAC, giving the company a stronghold to dismantle these networks by removing content and neutralizing threats before damage spreads.
“Midnight Labs is tackling an important and increasingly complex problem for the creative industries. We are pleased to support the team and look forward to collaborating as they build solutions for rights holders worldwide,” said Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director, Sony Ventures EMEA.
About Midnight Labs
Midnight Labs is the enterprise leader in AI-powered IP protection, trusted by the world’s largest streaming platforms, entertainment studios, podcast networks, talent agencies, and Fortune 100 executives. The company has removed over 2.8 billion pieces of infringing content across gaming, anime, manga, film, sports, music and live streaming.
Headquartered in Dublin, Midnight Labs is a Google Trusted Copyright Removal Program partner and a privately held company backed by Sony Innovation Fund, Airbridge Equity Partners, Earlybird VC, and Upside VC. Follow Midnight Labs on LinkedIn or learn more at https://midnightlabs.ai.
About Ceartas
Ceartas (/ˈkar-tɪs/), the Irish word for justice, is the creator-focused product of Midnight Labs, protecting the world’s biggest content creators and creator-economy brands from impersonation, piracy, and deepfakes. Founded to fight exploitation and protect victims of non-consensual content, Ceartas empowers creators and agencies with seamless global protection. Follow Ceartas on LinkedIn or learn more at https://ceartas.io.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260604022245/en/
Contact
Media Contacts:
Mindy M. Hull
Mercury Global Partners for Midnight Labs
+1 415 889 9977 (USA) or +31 6 2 5047680 (EU)
[email protected]
Michael Held-Hernandez
Mercury Global Partners for Midnight Labs
+1 480 306 1154 (USA)
[email protected]
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Midnight Labs, “The Internet’s Delete Button,” Announces Investment from Sony Innovation Fund to Lead AI-Powered IP Enforcement and Content Protection
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Midnight Labs, the Internet’s Delete Button, secures the full IP chain against generative AI misuse, deepfakes and piracy, including creator content, brand identity, NILV, character likeness, studio assets, and audio/video content, including live streams.
