Social media company Facebook acquired US-based intellectual property (IP) detection and analysis software startup Source3 yesterday for an undisclosed sum, giving an exit to design software provider Autodesk.
Source3 had created an end-to-end management platform for IP in user-generated content, and Facebook will be able to use the technology to help it find copyrighted videos that are being shared on its platform without the licence holder or creator’s consent.
The startup’s only disclosed funding came from a $4m seed round in 2015 led by Contour Venture Partners that included Autodesk’s Spark Investment Fund, Western Technology Investments, Correlation Ventures, Crosslink Capital, 645 Ventures and unnamed angel investors.
Source3 co-founders Patrick F.Sullivan, Scott Sellwood, Ben Cockerham and Tom Simon said in a blog post: “We are excited to bring our IP, trademark and copyright expertise to the team at Facebook and serve their global community of 2 billion people, who consume content, music, videos and other IP every day.
“We feel great about this next step in our journey, and we thank everyone who helped us get to where we are today – we could not have gotten this far without immense support from our investors, advisors, employees and others. We cannot wait to see what is next.”