Irish online IP protection firm Midnight Labs gets investment from Sony for Japan expansion

Image: Midnight Labs-Sony Innovation Fund

Dublin-based Midnight Labs, which claims to be the market leader in predictive IP protection for entertainment, gaming and content industries, has just announced an investment by Sony Innovation Fund.

The Sony Innovation Fund investment will be used to expand Midnight Labs’ agentic AI Enforcement Engine and its creator-focused Ceartas AI tool to protect high-value entertainment IP from mass piracy, deepfakes and AI-generated infringement in the U.S. and Japanese markets.

Japan is a particularly important market, Midnight suggests, because Manga remains the most pirated content globally, and the country is uniquely vulnerable to AI-generated copyright infringement. The investment from the Sony Innovation Fund accelerates Midnight Labs’ expansion in Japan and across APAC.

“Generative AI has industrialized piracy, exposing IP holders to both financial loss and real-time reputational damage,” says Dan Purcell, CEO and founder of Midnight Labs. “Traditional digital rights management built on manual processes simply cannot keep pace with AI-generated infringement, leaving legal and content protection teams overwhelmed. We make enforcement autonomous by scanning, detecting, proving and removing stolen content faster than it can spread, returning control to IP holders over their content, reputation and revenue. The backing of Sony Innovation Fund accelerates that mission.”

“Midnight Labs is tackling an important and increasingly complex problem for the creative industries. We are pleased to support the team and look forward to collaborating as they build solutions for rights holders worldwide,” said Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director, Sony Ventures EMEA.

Midnight Labs creator-focused product, Ceartas, also protects content creators and creator-economy brands, focusing on content that directly undermines revenue and erodes reputation, including pirated films, leaked music, cloned livestreams, and weaponized deepfakes targeting talent and executives.

Midnight Labs, set up in 2025, claims to be the leader in AI-powered IP protection, and says it has removed over 2.8 billion pieces of infringing content across gaming, anime, manga, film, sports, music and live streaming.