In a digital world where seeing isn't always believing, digital photo authentication platform Truepic today announced the close of an $8M Series A round of financing and new partnerships with major organizations and companies across key verticals. Truepic is the world's first notary for digital photos, enabling businesses, organizations, and consumers to verify photos as authentic. Since the company's market launch in 2017, Truepic has been used in over 100 countries by consumers and some the world's top organizations across a number of industries, including insurance, media, humanitarian, home and vehicle rentals, beauty, and others.

The new organizations adopting Truepic's technology include Reddit, which is using Truepic as public photo proof for its popular "Ask Me Anything" series; the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), using Truepic's technology to document the humanitarian situation in Syria; the Antiquities Coalition and its partners, using Truepic to document historical and cultural heritage sites under threat; Kopari Beauty, using Truepic to capture certified authentic before & after photos; and others.

Truepic's Series A financing round includes participation from Dowling Capital Partners; Jeffrey Parker, co-founder of FirstCall & former CEO of Thomson Financial; Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, Founder and CEO of Platinum Technology and SilkRoad Technology; William Sahlman, renowned Harvard Business School professor and venture capitalist; and other investment offices.

"We started Truepic long before manipulated images impacted democratic elections across the globe, digital evidence of atrocities and human rights abuses were regularly undermined, or online identities were fabricated to advance political agendas - but now we fully recognize its impact on society. It's never been more apparent how much the world needs the Truepic technology to help right the wrongs that have been created by the abuse of digital imagery," said Craig Stack, Founder & COO, Truepic. "While social media platforms are working to address the technology shortfalls and loopholes that allowed this level of fabrication and manipulation, they still struggle with detecting and stemming this misinformation. The advancement of our photo authenticity platform could not come at a better time."

In addition to the growth of its partner base and usage, Truepic's team has grown to 16 full time employees, with the following recent additions to executive leadership:

Mounir Ibrahim has been named VP of Strategic Initiatives for Truepic. Prior to joining the company, Ibrahim served as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and key Syria advisor to several U.S. Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives to the United Nations. Ibrahim's aim is to leverage Truepic's technology to address global humanitarian and social challenges through high-impact partnerships across a variety of industries.

Matthew Robben has been named VP of Engineering. He brings over a decade of software engineering experience and previously held management and leadership roles at Dropbox and One Medical Group. He will grow the engineering team at Truepic, with a goal of expanding the software portfolio and enabling Truepic's verification technology for devices and customers around the world.

Photos taken with the Truepic app cannot be altered, filtered or modified in any way. With well over 1.8 billion smartphone photos captured and uploaded to the internet each day, Truepic's application allows anyone with a smartphone to capture a certified authentic image and share it online instantaneously. Truepic's solutions include its Camera SDK for Enterprise, a drop-in smart camera that can be embedded within any mobile app, as well as a free consumer app, which can be found in the App Store and on Google Play.

In response to the rise of advanced video editing techniques, artificial intelligence, and other technologies that can be exploited for malicious purposes, Truepic is currently developing advanced facial feature, image, and object property analysis as a method for identifying image and videos generated by Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) or "Deepfakes." Truepic plans to accelerate its work to address this concerning technology in the coming months.

REPRESENTATIVE PARTNERSHIPS & QUOTES:

"The internet has quickly become a dumpster fire of disinformation. Fraudsters have taken full advantage of unsuspecting consumers and social platforms facilitate the swift spread of false narratives, leaving over 3.2 billion people on the internet to make self-determinations over what's trustworthy vs. fake online," said Jeff McGregor, CEO of Truepic. "Photo manipulation and the rapid development of new video editing technologies are at the intersection of this dangerous shift, and we intend to fix that by bringing a layer of trust back to the internet."

"IAmA is the forum on Reddit where people from all walks of life come to share their stories. From household names like Barack Obama and Bill Gates to expert axe throwers and food cart culinary road warriors, people are invited to ask hosts anything. Truepic's technology allows us to quickly and safely verify the identity and claims for some of our most eccentric guests. Truepic is a wonderful piece of tech with broad application, and some of the best developers we've had the pleasure of collaborating with. Truepic is a perfect tool for the ever evolving geography of privacy laws and social constructs across the Internet. We're looking forward to watching them grow."
--Brian Lynch, Moderator, Reddit IAmA and Intellectual Property attorney at Lynch LLP
--Craig Haseler, Moderator, Reddit IAmA

"For seven years, negative actors have used digital image manipulation as a convenient excuse to undermine legitimate documentation of the Syrian conflict. Truepic has enabled our staff to change this dynamic and capture authenticated images in some of the most closed off parts of Syria," said Ahmed Tarakji, President of SAMS. "We are now able to deliver highly important authenticated images to relevant members of the international community and further prove that atrocities are taking place."

In May, Truepic partnered with the Human Rights Foundation to demonstrate its technology during the 2018 Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, where the company presented its work and helped train some of the world's leading human rights, civil society, and humanitarian leaders on its image authentication technology.

"In a world where too much of the latest technology is being used for censorship and surveillance, it's inspiring to see companies like Truepic dedicated to creating tools that can help individuals in their quest for freedom and human rights," said Thor Halvorssen, President of the Human Rights Foundation.

Truepic also launched an innovative partnership with the Antiquities Coalition, a Washington, D.C. based NGO dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage. The Antiquities Coalition and the Nubia Initiative are using Truepic to document Nubian cultural heritage sites. "Archaeological and historic sites are under threat of looting and of loss due to region-wide environmental change. Truepic allows us to document the sites and establish evidence-quality provenance necessary for the protection of important artifacts," said Peter Herdrich, co-founder of the Antiquities Coalition.

Truepic is a proud member of Blockchain for Social Impact, a working group dedicated to implementing blockchain products and solutions that can address social and environmental challenges across the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Truepic is also a proud participant in the U.S. Department of State's Global Engagement Center's (GEC) Technology Demonstration Series.

About Truepic
In a world where seeing is not always believing, Truepic is the platform for businesses and consumers to verify an image's authenticity. Truepic's patented technology acts as a notary for digital photos, driving confidence among consumers and businesses that a shared photo has not been altered in any way. Founded in San Diego, CA, in 2016, TRUEPIC is led by serial entrepreneurs Craig Stack and Jeff McGregor and is backed by leading investors and advisors. More information can be found at www.truepic.com