In a sense, Lili Infante shares the same worldview as a John Wick or James Bond movie—there are good guys, there are bad guys, and there’s the chase.
Infante grew up in Soviet Russia, where she and her family were deeply affected by the unreliability and corruption of law enforcement as the Iron Curtain fell. Even as a child, she turned to American and British detective series, e.g The X-Files and Murder She Wroteunderstand the world.
“You couldn’t rely on the police there,” Infante said. “I grew up watching a lot of police series. After the collapse (of the Soviet Union), we got a lot more content, didn’t we? When I was a kid in Russia, I learned that I should be afraid of the police, that they are like the mafia – that they have a lot of power and will hurt you. Watching those westerns, however, I realized that it was the opposite of what it should be.”
Infante eventually became the law enforcement officer she saw on TV, immigrating to the US and becoming a DEA special agent for the US Department of Justice. She served for about a decade, during which time she became disillusioned with the government’s ability to cope with the speed of technological change.
“One of the main things that has really disturbed me is the speed at which cryptocurrencies and other technologies have been adopted by all these different criminal networks, including enemy nation states, terrorists and drug cartels,” Infante said. Wealth. “I just realized that we good guys can’t keep up with the bad guys anymore.”
So the Infante struck herself, founding a startup Cat Labs. And Cat Labs’ value proposition has the appeal of what makes spy movie tools appealing; like the cameras on James Bond’s wristwatches, Cat Labs builds something complicated to do something fundamentally simple—fighting technology-driven crime. The company’s flagship digital asset-focused tool has a clear goal: to help defense and intelligence agencies find and recover crypto.
Cat Labs launched last year, and now investors (both existing and new) have doubled. Cat Labs recently raised a seed round of $5.4 million, Wealth can only report. New York-based M13 led the round, with participation from existing investors including Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital and Hash3. This seed round brings the company’s total capital raised to $9.7 million. Cat Labs currently has 14 employees; that team has contributed to the busting of more than 300 criminal entities during their joint careers, the company says.
The market opportunity for what Cat Labs does is law enforcement, yes, but that’s a starting point, said M13 manager Karl Alomar.
“The key was that we were very confident that Lili could take this job, which should build that credibility,” Alomar said. Wealth. “We believed it could bring (this business) into policing and into govtech as a whole, which would build a pretty good revenue and income base for the company. Then from that point there would be many opportunities to expand that offering beyond the initial solution itself.”
Cat Labs comes to the market at a time when cybercrime is experiencing a boom in combination with new technologies, first with crypto and now with artificial intelligence. While the company’s core product is aimed at helping government agencies with their crypto investigations, Cat Labs says the process can be extended to a much broader fight against cybercrime.
“It goes back to hackers, fraudsters, fraudsters using new technologies to scale exponentially and globally and at a pace we’ve never seen before,” Infante said. “AI is really scary in this context. It really allows criminals to take some of the manual things they’ve been doing to carry out their crimes, like phishing campaigns or spam, and just make them a lot smarter. I can make them look like they come from real people, and at scale.”
We are talking about a world with more convincing phishing attacks and deepfakes and faster created synthetic identities. That said, Infante points out that fraudsters have often been some of the most effective users of the new technology.
“Bitcoin was first accepted by drug dealers on the Dark Web,” Infante said. “The Tor browser was first adopted en masse by bad actors. It’s the same thing here. When this empowering technology comes along, the bad guys are the first to use it. They don’t have rules and policies to follow… That’s what we have to start thinking about and address, and we’re not even close.”
But Infante’s idea is that we can get closer. Much closer. Because like those detective series she grew up with and the spy movies we’ve all seen, there’s always another case. There is always another chase.
Elon update…Estimates of Elon Musk are growing, and in some cases they are dizzying. Bloomberg reported that Musk’s SpaceX is in talks to launch an offer that would value the company at $350 billion. Meanwhile, Fidelity allegedly boosted the value of both Musk’s xAI and (perhaps more surprisingly) X, formerly of Twitter.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
E-mail: [email protected]
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ENTREPRENEURIAL WORKS
– Soda Healththe Bentonville, Ark.-based developer of a healthcare equity platform has raised $50 million in Series B funding. General catalyst led the circle and joined it Bruce Broussard and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Define ventures, Qiming Venture Partners USAand SVB capital.
– Eagle Electronicsthe Solon, Ohio-based semiconductor and cell module maker has raised $14 million in funding. The OHIO fund led the circle and joined it Asymmetric Capital Partners.
– The first resonancea Los Angeles-based provider of digital manufacturing solutions, has raised $12.3 million in funding. The third prime minister led the circle and joined it Craft ventures, The capital of the Blue Bearand E12.
– timedeveloper of living AI systems based in Menlo Park, California, has raised $10 million in seed funding. TQ Ventures led the circle and joined it Cadmus, Again, Market One Capital, Id4existing investor Lukasz Kaiserangel investors and others.
– MakersHuban Austin-based bill payment platform, has raised $7 million in seed funding. QED investors and TTV Capital led the circle and they joined them TRB consultantsexisting investor Dash fundand angel investors.
– GAIBa Singapore-based developer of financial infrastructure for artificial intelligence computing, has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding. Hack VC, Fractionand Scattered led the circle and they joined them Spartan, CMCC, L2IVangel investors and others.
– CUTTINGan Austin-based home fitness platform, has raised $4.8 million in seed funding. Skip capital led the circle and joined it He nods to undertake, Teampact Ventures, Cyril Ganeand others.
– Tixela Melbourne-based entertainment ticket resale platform, has raised $4.5 million in Series B funding. Touch Ventures led the circle and joined it Lalotte Ventures and others.
– Nurture the bossAI-based Scottsdale, Ariz.-based provider of multifamily residential rental solutions has raised $4 million in Series A funding. AZ-VC led the circle and joined it In income capital and the existing investor PHX ventures.
– BriefcaseLondon-based AI-powered accounting automation platform has raised $3 million in seed funding. Early bird led the circle and joined it Entrepreneur first, Smalland angel investors.
– StackfixLondon-based AI-powered software comparison platform has raised $3 million in seed funding. Chalfen Ventures led the circle and joined it Seedcamp, helloworldand angel investors.
PRIVATE CAPITAL
– Aechelon technologywith support Sagewind Capitalacquired the radar simulation department Computer services Comproa Dallas-based provider of software solutions for the aerospace and simulation industries. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Align Capital Partners acquired MKB companya manufacturer of erosion control, pollution prevention and stormwater management products based in Belleville, PA. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– CCMP Growth Advisors acquired Combined caterersa Charlotte-based provider of event management and catering services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– SmartBearwith support Vista Equity Partners and Francisco Partnersacquired QMetrysoftware quality testing platform based in Santa Clara, California. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– SolomonEdwardsportfolio company Renovus Capital Partnersacquired Steele Consultingan Atlanta-based tax consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Sunland Asphaltportfolio company Huron Capitalacquired Metro paversasphalt maintenance and paving company based in Henderson, Colo. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– The Colt groupwith support Capstreetacquired Plant Services, Inc.a repair and service provider for heavy process facilities based in Worden, Mont. Financial terms were not disclosed.
GET OUT
– ALL acquired Kellstrom Aerospacea company based in Davie, Fla AE industry partners for 200 million dollars.
– Advanced Capital Group acquired Little Caesarmexbased in Monterrey, Mexico Little Caesars Pizza franchisee, of Alta Growth Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
PEOPLE
– ICV partnersprivate equity firm based in Miami, promoted Lloyd Metz and Zeena Rao management partners.
