When Mark Lee was a Harvard Law School student, the trademark level exposed him to a staggering scale of forgery, the value of the illegal industry exceeded $3 trillion per yearand led him on an unexpected path of entrepreneur.
“I’ve always been very interested in technology and startups, but I never really thought I would be an entrepreneur. I thought I would be a lawyer; most of my family members are lawyers, and practicing law feels like a natural path.” But when he went to Harvard Law, education wasn’t what he expected, he added that he began to question whether a career as a corporate lawyer is suitable.
“So I started exploring different ideas. One day, I took a trademark class and learned that forgery is the largest criminal enterprise in the world, $3 trillion Every year, it is traded in counterfeit products, accounting for about 8% of global commerce. I was shocked that during Covid, this already massive market grew 20% annually as everything moves online, driven by the market and social media. ” Lee continued. I think it’s a common problem and a problem that can be solved with the technology I was passionate about at the time: computer vision.”
This insight becomes a seed Marqvisionhe later co-founded the company in 2021. The name itself reflects its origins: the trademark “Marq” and the computer vision “Vision”. The task is simple, but ambitious: a theme AI-powered computer vision that can fight forgery and trademark infringement globally.
Fast forward to 2025, the LA-LAEDSEFTERED AI startup has shut down its $48 million round of B, with its total capital raising about $90 million.
About half of Fresh Capital will go to expand its AI and engineering teams to accelerate automation and integrate the generated AI of its product suite. As the company moves to target large brands, an additional $10 million will be used to prepare platform businesses, while an additional $10 million will fund regional expansion. Marqvision, already active in the United States, South Korea, China and Europe, is now entering Japan, highlighting the borderless nature of IP laws and the company’s efforts around the world.
The financing was led by XV Peak Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India and Oceans) and participated by Michael Seibel, a partner at Salesforce Ventures, HSG, HSG (formerly Sequoia China), Coral Capital, Coral Capital and Y Combinator. Return supporters including YC, Altos Ventures and Atinum Investment also participated.
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“More and more senior investors are looking for technology companies that leverage AI not only improves productivity, but also fundamentally transforms service delivery,” Lee explained. “AI expands the software’s total addressable market from efficiency tools to execution of the job itself – unlocking more than $100 trillion in market opportunities. While many early-stage companies are trying AI to disrupt labor-intensive services, few have been able to reach early growth stages with scale and traction.”
Marqvision provides customers from fashion and luxury goods to gaming, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, automotive and consumer electronics to over 350 customers worldwide. The startup has reached $1 million in annual recurring revenue in eight months, $10 million in three years, and recently surpassed $20 million in four years, doubling each year along the way.
“Our goal is $100 million by mid-2027,” Lee said. “Growth could have been faster, but we prioritized two things: deliver the best customer experience and build a scalable AI-driven foundation. As a hosting service, we can monetize many products, but everything is tied to a core promise – hosting global brands to control their digital businesses and grow revenue.”
Once considered an unattractive category in technology, “services” are redefined by AI, which brings the scalability and efficiency of similar software. This shift has inspired investors to support the company’s vision, XV, HSG and Salesforce Peak expenses. The rise of large language models has positioned it from “software companies in a loop with humans” to a leader in emerging AI-LED services, creating huge competition in its latest funding round.
Marqvision begins fighting fake products, using AI to discover and delete fake products online. As technology evolves, the startup shifts its focus to helping brands recover lost revenues directly. Today, many customers report sales growth by about 5%, which allows the platform to reach market organizations not only for legal teams, but also for market organizations, thus tracking revenue impact.
When Lee first promoted Marqvision, he envisioned a $5 billion software company that sold $50,000 tools to 10,000 IP teams around the world. But YC’s partner Michael Seibel urged him to think bigger – beyond software by reimagining how IP and brand professionals work. Since then, Marqvision has expanded to end-to-end hosting services, and Lee now believes that an opportunity is 100 times greater than his original plan.
Lee notes that brand protection often involves detecting and eliminating infringements such as forgery and imitation, while brand controls evolve further, enabling companies to manage their presence on e-commerce, social media, websites and chat platforms. Going forward, the roadmap includes brand intelligence that provides insights on supply chains, pricing strategies and reseller networks.
“Our vision is to be the backbone of every global brand with IP – to be an AI-LED service platform for global IP, content and brand professionals,” Lee said.
