Cybersecurity startup LetsData has raised a $1.6M pre-seed round from SMOK Ventures, Wayra, Tilia Impact Ventures, 1991 Ventures, Google’s Ukraine Support Fund and Startup Wise Guys. 

Serial entrepreneurs Pavla Bobosikova (CEO and co-founder at WFHomie – acquired by GoCo) and Marty Krátký-Katz (CEO and co-founder at Blockthrough – acquired by eyeo) were also part of a group of angel investors in the round.

LetsData detects and flags misinformation on social media by processing open-source data across over 100 million websites and social media outlets, covering more than 50 languages and regions. It analyses text and video metadata from media across platforms like Telegram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Its technology then employs semantic understanding to group and link content across sources, identifying intent and coordination behind information operations. The company plans to integrate actionable threat intelligence into organizations’ workflows, empowering them to mitigate risks before reputational damage, cyberattack or operational disruption occurs.

The technology is used by UK Embassies, and the Armed Forces of NATO member states as well as corporations across the US, UK and Europe.

Ksenia Iliuk, co-founder of LetsData, commented on the raise: “LetsData began as a bootstrapped venture during the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when we saw a spike in demand from companies and governments requiring advanced InfoOps detection. Typically, organizations rely on understaffed teams or communications departments that are ill-equipped to handle these kinds of threats.

“LetsData bridges this gap by providing a security-first approach to InfoOps, enabling clients to act on alerts from day one of onboarding without the need for complex training or resource-intensive processes. Our ambition is to become the industry standard for InfoOps detection and disrupt the industry by delivering actionable intelligence that empowers organizations to respond swiftly and effectively.”

Borys Musielak, founding partner at SMOK Ventures added: “I loved how Ksenia and Andriy bootstrapped their way to profitability without even raising external funding. Their technology is already helping to stop the information operations and with a growing list of high-value clients, our investment will help support them as they scale to meet the increasing demand for advanced InfoOps protection.”