Accenture has made a strategic investment in Reality Defender, a cybersecurity company specializing in deepfake detection, through its venture arm, Accenture Ventures.
Notably, Accenture has invested in Reality Defender as part of the startup's $33 million series-A-extended round of funding, which is led by Illuminate Financial, with participation from Accenture, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and the Jefferies Family Office.
Reality Defender, which won the RSA Innovation award, offers solutions to detect and prevent deepfake fraud across various industries, including financial services, media, and high-tech.
The partnership aims to equip clients with the ability to rapidly identify, detect, respond to, and prevent deepfake fraud, ensuring a more secure digital landscape. Reality Defender's technology includes real-time voice detection and audiovisual detection to catch even the most advanced AI-generated content.
Founded in 2021, by Ben Colman, Ali Shahriyari, and Gaurav Bharaj, and based in New York, Reality Defender provides solutions to detect and prevent deepfake fraud across various industries, including financial services, media, and high-tech. Ben Colman serves as the Co-Founder and CEO, Ali Shahriyari is the Co-Founder and CTO, and Gaurav Bharaj is the Co-Founder and Head of AI.
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| Reality Defender Founders - Ben Colman, Ali Shahriyari, and Gaurav Bharaj |
Reality Defender's technology includes real-time voice detection and audiovisual detection, which can identify even the most advanced AI-generated content. Reality Defender has recently introduced a tool for real-time video deepfake detection, which is currently in private beta for select clients.
The cybersecurity startup has received recognition for its innovative solutions, including winning the RSA Innovation award and being named the Most Innovative Company at RSA's Innovation Sandbox competition.
Accenture's Cyber Intelligence researchers have documented a staggering 223% spike in deepfake-related tool trading on dark web forums in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. This escalating issue requires immediate attention and education to reduce its potential damaging impacts.
Accenture intends to integrate Reality Defender’s capabilities into its existing deepfake detection and protection offering, including extending it to their call center AI automation solution.
“As deepfakes become more convincing and harder to identify, organizations urgently need scalable and effective detection solutions,” said Paolo Dal Cin, global lead, Accenture Security. “Reality Defender offers a unique approach to proactively detect AI-related threats across image, audio, text and video. Our investment in Reality Defender demonstrates our strong commitment to helping clients confidently navigate the gen AI driven threat landscape, mitigate financial fraud and maintain the integrity of their digital communications.”
Reality Defender is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on working with companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies.
Most recently, the companies that have received investment from Accenture Ventures under Project Spotlight include Martian, Earli Inc, and an AI startup Turbine while cybersecurity/ quantum security companies are – Aliro Quantum, Tenchi Security, SpiderOak and Interos.
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