– Blackbird.AI, an AI-powered platform designed to combat disinformation, announced that it closed a $10 million series A funding round led by Dorilton Ventures with participation from NetX, Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures, and individual angel investors.
– The proceeds, which bring the company’s total raised to $11.87 million, will be used to support ramp-ups in hiring and product lines and launch new features and capabilities for corporate and national security customers, according to cofounder and CEO Wasim Khaled.
– The cost of disinformation and digital manipulation threats to organizations and governments is estimated to be $78 billion annually, the University of Baltimore and Cheq Cybersecurity found in a report.

– Blackbird.AI is a NYC-based AI-driven Disinformation Intelligence Platform.
– The company closed a $10m Series A funding.
– The round was led by Dorilton Ventures, with participation from new investors including Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures and Richard Clarke. Existing investor NetX also participated.
– The new investment will be used to scale up the engineering and sales teams, fast-track new product development, and accelerate platform adoption by a global client base.

– SmartNews, a news aggregation website and app, raised $230m in Series F funding.
– The round was led by Princeville Capital and Woodline Partners, and joined by JIC Venture Growth Investments, Green Co-Invest Investment, and Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office in Japan.
– Existing investors participated in this round including ACA Investments and SMBC Venture Capital.
– The company plans to develop more features for its U.S. audience that will focus on consumer health and safety.

– Qwoted, a NYC-based platform for journalists to connect with brands, small businesses and industry experts, raised $3m in seed funding.
– The round was led by Third Prime with participation from Gaingels, Prosek Venture Partners and Vested, a consortium of communications firms including Integral, Caliber Corporate Advisers, Haymaker PR, FHS Partners and Red Lab, and additional investors Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief of Investopedia, David Siegel, CEO of MeetUp and Tom Rovak, Senior Advisor toFahrenheit 212.
– The company intends to use the funds to enhance its technology capabilities and add premier talent to its sales, marketing and media success teams, to build brand awareness and onboard new customers.

– Proactive, a Toronto, Canada-based company which specializes in real-time financial news, raised A Series B funding round of undisclosed amount.
– The round was led by Yorkville Asset Management.
– The company intends to use the capital for organic growth and merger and acquisition activity.