Northstar Labs
Northstar Labs is the IP-compliance layer for studios using generative AI — turning $150K-per-image violation risk into licensable, ownable assets. Three top-5 streamers piloting; $2.4M ARR pipeline at nine months.
Investment thesis
Generative AI ships into Hollywood post-strike, and every studio quietly knows half of what their teams generate is unlicensable. The Disney/Warner/Universal lawsuits made that risk concrete — $150K per infringing image, before lawyers. Northstar is the verification layer studios are scrambling for: every asset scored, every match logged, every clearance certificate signable. The moat is the licensing index, not the model — we license what others sue over.
$2.4MARR
Data Room
The documents
Structured investor materials by category. Files you've attached are listed inline; categories without a document today are marked so you can close the gap before the next meeting.
Product
Demo, pitch video, and proof of creation.
- Pitch (video)on request
- Product demoon request
- Proof of creationon request
Investment
Deck and round materials for active fundraise.
- Pitch deckon request
- SAFE / term sheeton request
- Investor memoon request
Financial
Model, pipeline, contracts, and LOIs.
- Financial modelon request
- Sales pipelineon request
- Contractson request
- LOIson request
Legal
Formation, compliance, cap table, and policies.
- Cap tableon request
- Incorporation docson request
- Compliance policieson request
IP & registrations
Patents, trademarks, and copyright registrations.
- Patent filingson request
- Trademarkson request
- USCO registrationson request
Contacts
How to reach the team and book a call.
- Websiteon request
- LinkedInon request
- Book a callon request
On file
- Northstar — pitch deck (May 2026).pdf4.6 MB
- Northstar — financial model.xlsx305 KB
- Cap table — post-seed.xlsx38 KB
- Pilot agreement — Studio A.pdf1.1 MB
- Patent filing — matching engine.pdf2.7 MB
- Forbes feature — March 2026.pdf598 KB
01
About
Northstar Labs ships an IP-compliance API and dashboard for studios, agencies, and AI platforms generating commercial content. Founded 2025 in Los Angeles by a former Meta IP lead and the engineer who built Siri's on-device vision pipeline. 12 people; HQ Venice; remote-friendly engineering in Lisbon and Seoul.
02
Product
One REST call returns a 0–100 risk score and the matched IP graph (character, talent likeness, trademark, style, voice). Studio dashboard wraps it: queue, batch scoring, signed clearance certificates, audit log. Detect-only at $0.003 per image; full compliance bundle with indemnification at $1.50–$5.00 per certificate. Live SDKs: Python, Node, Swift; native ComfyUI and Runway nodes ship Q3.
03
Why now
Three forces collide: (1) the Disney/Universal/Warner lawsuits set $150K-per-image precedent six months ago; (2) Studio Ghibli vs OpenAI made the public case that any unlicensed style is litigable; (3) Japan's new AI & IP Protection Directive (April 2026) requires asset-level provenance for any commercial AI output sold into Japan. Studios that don't license now write 2027 settlement checks.
04
Market
Total: $620B/yr across studios ($250B), game developers ($190B), and brand agencies ($180B). Reachable IP-and-content-protection layer: $216B, with $18B in the high-exposure (movies, prestige TV) sub-segment that needs indemnified certificates. Revenue opportunity: $900M of recurring API + certificate margin against the layer's price-takers — that's the wedge.
05
Business model
Two surfaces. (1) High-volume detection — $0.003/image, $0.10/min video, low-touch self-serve for AI platforms (Runway, Midjourney). (2) High-exposure clearance — $1.50–$5.00 per signed certificate, $6K/mo enterprise floor, sold direct to studios with legal sign-off. Same engine; the certificate is what indemnifies. Average enterprise contract today: $72K/yr.
06
Traction
$2.4M ARR pipeline at nine months. Three top-5 streamers in paid pilot (one renewed, two closing Q3). Live API: 47M images scored to date; 99.94% uptime on the inference tier. Founding 10 enterprise design partners include AGBO (Russo Brothers), Suntory, and ArentFox Schiff. Engaged with both the US Copyright Office and Japan's METI on AI-IP frameworks.
07
Team
MC
Mara Chen
CEO
YP
Yusuf Park
CTO
AC
Ana Coelho
Head of IP Legal
08
Press & credibility
- Forbes
The compliance layer Hollywood is testing" (March 2026)