We profiled Pex in March last year: the startup has developed technology to scan, fingerprint and index audio and video on a swathe of video streaming services and social apps. It has since shared some of its data on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Now the company has raised an impressive $57m funding round to continue its growth.
Tencent and Tencent Music were among the new investors in the company, who also included the CueBall Group, NexGen Ventures Partners and Amaranthine.
The company will use the funding to continue work on its Attribution Engine (AE) product, which Pex says “replaces unreliable upload filters and takedown requests with real-time use authorisation and licensing, benefiting creators while recognising and compensating those whose works are sampled and shared”.
It’s auspicious timing, given the ongoing (occasionally painful) progress of countries implementing the European Copyright Directive, and the potential for copyright reform ahead in the US.