Sector:
Web3
Country:
USA
Year
2023
Short Description
KINETK is a first of its kind platform providing anyone with the unprecedented ability to safeguard, track, and control where their content goes, and how it is used. The next generation of IP holders require a robust and transparent system to manage their IP in real-time, across platforms, and without friction. Through the combination of proprietary invisible watermarking, agentic AI detection and tracking, and on-chain registration, KINETK is providing the infrastructure that will underpin the future data models of the digital landscape.
Founders
Michael Finkelstein
,
Co-founder & CEO
Mariale Montenegro
,
Co-founder & CTO
Why we invested
KINETK fits our belief that digital ownership needs serious infrastructure. As IP, AI, and content increasingly collide, attribution and protection can no longer be optional. KINETK is building the rails that make creative ownership enforceable at internet scale, quietly foundational and deeply technical. This long-term, infrastructure-first mindset closely matches how we think about web3.
Founder Story
Michael Finkelstein
,
Co-founder & CEO
Michael started his career in Investment Banking on Wall Street, then crossed the country for an MBA at Stanford in the late 90s. Immersed in the early Valley, he felt the pull to build, launching into media startups during the first internet boom, and has stayed a builder ever since. In 2008, he moved into music rights, helping build what became the largest independent music publisher sold to BMG Rights, and discovered that intellectual property was the manifestation of anyone’s creativity, not just a line item.
He founded a data-driven asset-based lender for industrial small businesses, which helped sharpen his view of where markets fail. He saw how technology and data could open access to esoteric assets, but also how legacy systems, manual processes, and fear of change kept creative and productive people from capturing the value they generated. The most important lesson he learned: timing and structure matter, but conviction about the problem has to outlast any one model.
KINETK exists because Michael believes IP will define the next 25 years, just as privacy and data defined the last. He is building the infrastructure layer for digital creativity: using agentic AI, neural networks, and fingerprinting to know who created what, where it travels, and how it’s used. The company’s purpose today is straightforward: Make ownership and movement of digital media transparent enough that people, brands, and institutions can build economies on top of it.
Michael started his career in Investment Banking on Wall Street, then crossed the country for an MBA at Stanford in the late 90s. Immersed in the early Valley, he felt the pull to build, launching into media startups during the first internet boom, and has stayed a builder ever since. In 2008, he moved into music rights, helping build what became the largest independent music publisher sold to BMG Rights, and discovered that intellectual property was the manifestation of anyone’s creativity, not just a line item.
He founded a data-driven asset-based lender for industrial small businesses, which helped sharpen his view of where markets fail. He saw how technology and data could open access to esoteric assets, but also how legacy systems, manual processes, and fear of change kept creative and productive people from capturing the value they generated. The most important lesson he learned: timing and structure matter, but conviction about the problem has to outlast any one model.
KINETK exists because Michael believes IP will define the next 25 years, just as privacy and data defined the last. He is building the infrastructure layer for digital creativity: using agentic AI, neural networks, and fingerprinting to know who created what, where it travels, and how it’s used. The company’s purpose today is straightforward: Make ownership and movement of digital media transparent enough that people, brands, and institutions can build economies on top of it.
Sector:
Web3
Country:
USA
Year
2023
Short Description
KINETK is a first of its kind platform providing anyone with the unprecedented ability to safeguard, track, and control where their content goes, and how it is used. The next generation of IP holders require a robust and transparent system to manage their IP in real-time, across platforms, and without friction. Through the combination of proprietary invisible watermarking, agentic AI detection and tracking, and on-chain registration, KINETK is providing the infrastructure that will underpin the future data models of the digital landscape.
Founders
Michael Finkelstein
,
Co-founder & CEO
Mariale Montenegro
,
Co-founder & CTO
Why we invested
KINETK fits our belief that digital ownership needs serious infrastructure. As IP, AI, and content increasingly collide, attribution and protection can no longer be optional. KINETK is building the rails that make creative ownership enforceable at internet scale, quietly foundational and deeply technical. This long-term, infrastructure-first mindset closely matches how we think about web3.
Founder Story
Michael Finkelstein
,
Co-founder & CEO
Michael started his career in Investment Banking on Wall Street, then crossed the country for an MBA at Stanford in the late 90s. Immersed in the early Valley, he felt the pull to build, launching into media startups during the first internet boom, and has stayed a builder ever since. In 2008, he moved into music rights, helping build what became the largest independent music publisher sold to BMG Rights, and discovered that intellectual property was the manifestation of anyone’s creativity, not just a line item.
He founded a data-driven asset-based lender for industrial small businesses, which helped sharpen his view of where markets fail. He saw how technology and data could open access to esoteric assets, but also how legacy systems, manual processes, and fear of change kept creative and productive people from capturing the value they generated. The most important lesson he learned: timing and structure matter, but conviction about the problem has to outlast any one model.
KINETK exists because Michael believes IP will define the next 25 years, just as privacy and data defined the last. He is building the infrastructure layer for digital creativity: using agentic AI, neural networks, and fingerprinting to know who created what, where it travels, and how it’s used. The company’s purpose today is straightforward: Make ownership and movement of digital media transparent enough that people, brands, and institutions can build economies on top of it.
Michael started his career in Investment Banking on Wall Street, then crossed the country for an MBA at Stanford in the late 90s. Immersed in the early Valley, he felt the pull to build, launching into media startups during the first internet boom, and has stayed a builder ever since. In 2008, he moved into music rights, helping build what became the largest independent music publisher sold to BMG Rights, and discovered that intellectual property was the manifestation of anyone’s creativity, not just a line item.
He founded a data-driven asset-based lender for industrial small businesses, which helped sharpen his view of where markets fail. He saw how technology and data could open access to esoteric assets, but also how legacy systems, manual processes, and fear of change kept creative and productive people from capturing the value they generated. The most important lesson he learned: timing and structure matter, but conviction about the problem has to outlast any one model.
KINETK exists because Michael believes IP will define the next 25 years, just as privacy and data defined the last. He is building the infrastructure layer for digital creativity: using agentic AI, neural networks, and fingerprinting to know who created what, where it travels, and how it’s used. The company’s purpose today is straightforward: Make ownership and movement of digital media transparent enough that people, brands, and institutions can build economies on top of it.