Key Takeaways
- • InfoHawk closed a $2.25 million pre-seed financing round led by Moonshots Capital to fund its AI platform designed to detect and neutralize deception at internet scale.
- • The funding round attracted high-profile angel investors including former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, AppNexus founder Brian O'Kelley, former Meta ads head Rob Goldman, and GitHub CTO Vlad Fedorov, signaling confidence in the deception-detection market.
- • InfoHawk was founded by Rob Leathern, Ben Poiesz, and Jamie McCrindle, bringing combined expertise in online platform governance, content moderation, and AI development.
- • The investor syndicate reflects deep domain experience across platform regulation, advertising safety, privacy, and large-scale content management, with participants holding leadership positions at FTC, Google, Meta, WhatsApp, and GitHub.
Summary
InfoHawk, an artificial intelligence platform focused on detecting and neutralizing deception at internet scale, announced the close of a $2.25 million pre-seed funding round on June 8, 2026. The round was led by Moonshots Capital and backed by a notable group of angel investors with extensive backgrounds in building, defending, and regulating online platforms at scale.
The company was founded by Rob Leathern, Ben Poiesz, and Jamie McCrindle. The founding team's composition suggests specialized expertise in online platform operations and governance, areas critical to addressing the stated mission of detecting and neutralizing deception across digital channels.
The investor group reflects institutional confidence in both the founding team and the market opportunity. Beyond lead investor Moonshots Capital, the round included Jon Leibowitz, former two-term Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Brian O'Kelley, founder of AppNexus; Rob Goldman, former head of Ads at Meta; James Walker, founder and CEO of Centigrade; Scott Spencer, former VP of ads safety and privacy at Google; Vlad Fedorov, CTO of GitHub; and Nikila Srinivasan, former VP of Product for WhatsApp, among others.
This investor composition underscores the relevance of deception detection across multiple sectors of the digital economy, from advertising and platform safety to product integrity and regulatory compliance. The concentration of former and current executives from regulatory bodies, major technology platforms, and advertising infrastructure suggests that deception detection—whether related to misinformation, fraud, or platform manipulation—represents a growing concern for both private sector and government stakeholders.
The company was founded by Rob Leathern, Ben Poiesz, and Jamie McCrindle. The founding team's composition suggests specialized expertise in online platform operations and governance, areas critical to addressing the stated mission of detecting and neutralizing deception across digital channels.
The investor group reflects institutional confidence in both the founding team and the market opportunity. Beyond lead investor Moonshots Capital, the round included Jon Leibowitz, former two-term Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Brian O'Kelley, founder of AppNexus; Rob Goldman, former head of Ads at Meta; James Walker, founder and CEO of Centigrade; Scott Spencer, former VP of ads safety and privacy at Google; Vlad Fedorov, CTO of GitHub; and Nikila Srinivasan, former VP of Product for WhatsApp, among others.
This investor composition underscores the relevance of deception detection across multiple sectors of the digital economy, from advertising and platform safety to product integrity and regulatory compliance. The concentration of former and current executives from regulatory bodies, major technology platforms, and advertising infrastructure suggests that deception detection—whether related to misinformation, fraud, or platform manipulation—represents a growing concern for both private sector and government stakeholders.
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