Sensity AI wins €4.9M EIC grant to build forensic deepfake detection
What's the deal? Sensity AIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an Amsterdam-based biometric deepfake detection firm, will receive €4.9 million ($5.6 million) from the European Innovation Council (EIC), the EU's flagship funding program for early-stage tech. The package includes a €2.5 million equity-free grant to develop foundational models for deepfake detection.
Why now? The deepfake threat is spreading across critical sectors. Sensity says 75% of businesses experienced deepfake fraud in 2025.
What's the endgame? Sensity is targeting law enforcement, forensics labs, and governments with what it calls "a validated crime-busting tool with a forensic engine producing reports for evidentiary use." The funding will help develop its models and optimise real-time analysis in resource-constrained environments, while accelerating international expansion.
The forensic element is what sets Sensity apart. Its technology "decouples the learning of forensic features from the classification of specific generators," which it says makes detection more resilient as deepfake tech evolves.
What could go wrong? Sensity flags a limitation across the market: detection models trained on specific generators "lose accuracy when encountering synthetic media from generators not represented in their training data." Such detectors are "brittle and require costly manual retraining every time a new generation technique gains traction."
The EIC grant follows the closure in early 2026 of a $2.1 million round led by Auriga Cyber VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from Betaworks VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and European angels. The EIC selected 38 companies from 1,760 proposals; Sensity says it was the only cybersecurity solution chosen.
The signal: The grant ranks in the top 3% of all-time grant rounds for security startups in the Netherlands. Chief executive officer Giorgio Patrini framed the win in geopolitical terms, saying the EU's support "sends a strong message reaffirming tech sovereignty in a critical security sector."
Read more: Biometric Update
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