Russian investors pour cash into startup that detects photo manipulation

By VCPOST Staff Reporter

Feb 07, 2014 02:23 PM EST

St Petersburg-based startup SMTDP Tech LTD received an undisclosed amount of funding from Moscow-based investment fund Flint Capital and state-backed early-stage fund FRII. SMTDP has developed a tool that can verify a photo's authenticity, according to VentureBeat.

Also called the Picture Manipulation Inspector (PMI), the said service is designed for a wide range of industries such as photojournalism, insurance, construction, and advertising. The developers of the solution said these are the sectors that have increasing incidences of fraud involving manipulated photos, the report explained.

The said tool was first tested on fake photos compiled by insurance firms. The SMTDP software was completed near the end of 2012. Insurance firms were among the startup's first clients. Last year, Russian forensic investigation solutions provider Belkasoft introduced PMI to its client base. Belkasoft's customers include 20,000 state experts all over the world, the report detailed.

SMTDP will use the funding to beef up its turnover and for its international development, VentureBeat reported.

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