Yakoa raises $4.8 million to detect NFT fraud

•Yakoa, an NFT fraud detection startup, has raised $4.8 million in a seed funding round.

• Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital and Collab+Currency co-led the round, with Uniswap Labs Ventures, Alliance DAO, Orange DAO, Time Zero Capital and Sunset Ventures among the participants.

• Yakoa was founded by two high school friends in February who applied Dworschak’s research from Stanford University to the NFT space.

• The startup plans to increase its team size to around 20 people in order to better serve its clients which include Genie (recently acquired by Uniswap Labs) and other major web3 platforms.

 In a world where non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all the rage, it’s no surprise that a startup focused on NFT fraud detection would attract some attention from investors. Yakoa, a startup founded by two high school friends, has raised $4.8 million in a seed funding round led by Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital, and Collab+Currency. The round also included participation from Uniswap Labs Ventures, Alliance DAO, Orange DAO, Time Zero Capital, and Sunset Ventures.

So what exactly does Yakoa do? The startup uses Dworschak’s research from Stanford University to help clients like Genie (recently acquired by Uniswap Labs) and other major web3 platforms detect fraud in the NFT space. With the new funding, Yakoa plans to increase its team size to around 20 people in order to better serve its clients.

How does Yakoa work?

Yakoa’s fraud detection system is based on DWORSCHAK’s research from Stanford University. DWORSCHAK’s research focuses on the use of neural networks for anomaly detection in time series data. By applying this research to the NFT space, Yakoa can help clients like Genie (recently acquired by Uniswap Labs) and other major web3 platforms detect fraudulent activity.

Yakoa’s system works by training a deep learning model on a dataset of known NFTs. This dataset is then used to generate a latent space which is used to detect anomalies. Anomalies are detected by looking for points in the latent space that are far away from the rest of the data points. These outliers are then investigated further to determine if they represent fraudulent activity.

Why is this important?

Fraudulent activity is a major problem in the world of NFTs. Recently, there have been several high-profile cases of fraud involving NFTs. For example, in January 2021, an NFT created by artist Beeple sold for $69 million at Christie’s auction house. However, it was later revealed that the Beeple NFT was created using stolen artwork from another artist. If Yakoa had been around at the time, it’s possible that the fraud could have been detected before the Beeple NFT was sold at auction.

The world of NFTs is full of potential — but also potential for fraud. That’s where Yakoa comes in. The startup uses DWORSCHAK’s research from Stanford University to help clients like Genie (recently acquired by Uniswap Labs) and other major web3 platforms detect fraudulent activity in the NFT space. With its new seed funding round led by Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital and Collab+Currency, Yakoa plans to increase its team size to around 20 people to better serve its clients and help keep the world of NFTs safe for everyone involved.

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