Anti-toxicity startup, L1ght recently raised $15 million in a seed funding round led by Mangrove Capital Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, and Western Technology Investment.
The company aims to reduce online toxicity using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and predict toxicity that could hurt kids as they surf the web, play multiplayer games or use communication apps - but not by working directly with kids or parents, but plugging in to the social platforms themselves (B2B).
The funding will be used to fuel its research and development and to improve the platform's scalability, allowing the technology to detect toxic materials in near real time.
L1ght has developed proprietary algorithms to power its AI-based platform to identify bullying, hate speech, predatory behavior, self harm and more in various formats including text, images, audio, and video.
The platform integrates with social media, messaging applications, gaming and hosting providers. Once flagged, clients can readily take action against content and users to prevent them from causing further harm.
Co-founder and CEO Zohar Levkovitz shares his personal motivation for the platform to succeed. As a father, he believes that there is much to be done to address cyberbullying and online toxicity.
"My co-founder Ron Porat and I started L1ght because we saw the dangers our children were facing online and felt not enough has been done to address these problems. Our main priority has always been to keep kids safe and this investment is further proof that our technology can accomplish that. I'm honored and grateful to have our mission at L1ght validated through this seed round from true industry titans," said Levkovitz.
Roy Saar, Partner at Mangrove, said: "We conducted research and found that the benefits of the internet, unfortunately, come with an increasing amount of toxicity against children. This toxicity is expensive for us as a society. We looked into this space for quite some time and were highly impressed by L1ght's vision and founding members."
Cyberbullying has become a major concern for parents and educators all over the globe. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, 37 percent of middle school and high school students in the United States between the ages of 12 and 17 have experienced being bullied online. Nearly a third claim to have experienced abuse more than once. Bullying victims can suffer from negative psychological effects and are more likely to commit self-harm and exhibit suicidal behavior.
The availability of a platform such as L1ght could help minimize, if not eradicate, instances of cyberbullying. Investors are convinced of the importance of the company's mission.
Tribeca Venture managing partner Chip Meakem added, "Tribeca Venture Partners is thrilled to join the L1ght team on its incredibly important mission - protecting children online. After working with Zohar and his team for quite some time we are confident L1ght is uniquely positioned to help solve this massive societal problem. Now, the real work begins, which is to distribute L1ght's proprietary algorithms to major online platforms and providers across the globe."
