Accelerate Fund III invests in Areto Labs to detect and counteract toxicity and abuse in social media
We’re excited to share that we’ve got a fantastic new partner and investor in the Accelerate Fund III managed by the Alberta team at Yaletown Partners.
The announcement below was originally published by our lead investor on AccelerateFund.ca. We thought we’d share it here, too, for our audience.
Calgary, AB, June 20, 2022 – Accelerate Fund III today announced its investment into Areto Labs, an Edmonton-based women-founded startup that uses AI-powered technology to detect and counteract toxicity and abuse in social communities, making participation safe for brands, spokespeople and audience members. This investment is part of Areto Labs’ $1.5 million pre-seed investment led by Accelerate Fund III, with participation from ScaleGood Fund, The51, UCeed Social Impact, and other angel investors.
The risk of social media abuse is a major issue for brands whose spokespeople and audiences demand safe experiences. There is an ever-present risk that issues will be called out publicly or legal action taken if the community is not managed inclusively. Areto Labs’ products help brands reduce their risk and liability, retain talent and grow brand value.
"At the Tokyo Olympics female athletes were targets of 80 percent of social abuse," explained Lana Cuthbertson, Areto Labs CEO and Founder. "Sports brands need to make it safe to be a brand ambassador or audience member to draw in more participation, engagement and commerce from their brands."
Areto Labs uses machine learning, specifically sentiment analysis and natural language processing, to identify toxicity and microaggressions in social media and digital communities. Their applications enable brands to detect and immediately counteract online toxicity with real-time monitoring, automated responses and instant counteractions like blocking and reporting accounts.
“Online aggression has a dramatic and costly impact on audience engagement,” commented Yasmine Al-Hussein, Investment Analyst, Accelerate Fund II & III. “Areto Labs has demonstrated strong market uptake from sports brands and organizations seeking to create equitable online communities to boost participation. We’re excited to support their next phase of growth.”
Areto Labs will use proceeds from Accelerate Fund III and other investors in their $1.5 million seed round to expand its product team, invest in product research and development, and further expand sales in sports brands and organizations in Canada and Europe.
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About Areto
Areto protects people on social media by detecting—and counteracting—online abuse, so companies can reduce risk and liability, retain talent and grow brand value. Their software product enables organizations to successfully navigate the toxic frontiers of digital communities, using natural language processing enhanced by proprietary algorithms to detect both obvious toxic language and subtle yet harmful microaggressions.
About Accelerate Fund III
Accelerate Fund III is an early-stage angel co-investment fund in Alberta. We co-invest alongside angel investors in financing rounds and will typically invest up to $500,000 on the same terms and conditions as private investors. We work with formal angel groups, super-angels, family funds, and individual angel investors. Accelerate Fund III invests in private, early-stage Alberta companies in knowledge-based industries including: information and communications technology, energy technology, as well as life sciences, including agriculture and biotech. Accelerate Fund III is managed by Yaletown Partners with the support of The A100. Alberta Enterprise Corporation is Accelerate Fund III’s lead limited partner with support from other investors, including Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund.
