EnforceShield raises €1.7 million to automate the fight against online IP violations
The Vilnius-based legal technology startup secured a seed round led by Vendep Capital, with participation from FIRSTPICK. The company will expand its platform and accelerate commercial growth in the United States, which accounts for most of its prospective business.
Lithuanian startup EnforceShield has raised €1.7 million in seed funding to expand its autonomous intellectual property enforcement platform as generative artificial intelligence increases the volume and sophistication of online brand abuse.
The round was led by Vendep Capital, with participation from FIRSTPICK. EnforceShield plans to use the capital to strengthen its product and engineering teams, automate more complex enforcement procedures and accelerate its entry into the United States.
Founded in Vilnius in 2024 by chief executive Rytis Rudzinskas and chief technology officer Aidis Stukas, the company develops software designed to identify and remove intellectual property violations across marketplaces, social media, search engines, advertising networks and independent websites.
Its target market includes brands facing counterfeits, unauthorised resellers, copied product images, fake listings, impersonation campaigns and cloned online shops. These practices can divert sales, damage customer trust and force companies to dedicate legal and operational resources to repeated enforcement work.
The spread of generative AI has increased the scale of the problem. Images, advertisements, product descriptions and entire storefronts can now be reproduced rapidly and distributed across several channels. At the same time, traditional enforcement remains heavily dependent on lawyers and analysts reviewing individual cases.
EnforceShield is attempting to close that gap by automating the complete enforcement cycle rather than focusing exclusively on detection.
Its platform locates potential infringements, analyses the relevant legal and platform requirements, validates cases, submits removal requests and monitors whether the content or seller returns. More complex cases can be escalated to legal specialists.
The company describes this approach as a “human-at-the-end” model. AI agents manage routine cases, while lawyers and analysts review exceptions, approve sensitive decisions or intervene when standard takedown mechanisms prove insufficient.
This structure is intended to allow enforcement volumes to grow without requiring a proportional increase in legal personnel. The company says its platform currently removes more than 33,500 intellectual property violations per month and can begin monitoring a new customer’s assets on the same day they join.
EnforceShield serves more than 20 enterprise customers, primarily ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands, companies managing several labels and businesses exposed to recurring online imitation. Its commercial model is based on enterprise software subscriptions rather than fees for each individual case.
The new investment will support the automation of additional processes involving repeat offenders, complex escalation routes and disputes that cannot be resolved through standard platform procedures.
It will also finance international expansion, with the United States emerging as the company’s main growth market. According to EnforceShield, American companies currently represent as much as 80% of its sales pipeline.
The US opportunity is substantial because of the size of its ecommerce market and the number of brands selling through several digital channels. However, expansion will also require the platform to manage different legal standards, platform rules and evidentiary requirements.
Autonomous enforcement therefore presents its own risks. Systems must distinguish between genuine infringement, authorised resale, legitimate comparative advertising and lawful uses of protected material. Excessive automation could produce incorrect takedowns, making legal oversight and auditable decision-making important parts of the product.
EnforceShield’s funding reflects a broader shift within legal technology. Investors are increasingly supporting platforms that move beyond assisting professionals and begin executing complete workflows under defined controls.
For intellectual property owners, the commercial value will depend on whether the technology can shorten response times and reduce enforcement costs without weakening legal accuracy. For EnforceShield, the next phase will test whether a platform developed in Lithuania can manage online infringements across jurisdictions and become part of the operating infrastructure used by international brands.
