How much did Checkstep raise with this deck?

According to publisher reports from Business Insider, Checkstep raised $5M in a Seed round in 2024. The deck itself does not state the amount raised or the valuation.

What specific regulations does Checkstep help companies comply with?

Slide 3 explicitly mentions the Online Safety Bill, the Digital Service Act, and Section 230. Slide 6 also notes region-specific workflows, specifically citing the German NetzDG law.

Does Checkstep replace human moderators entirely?

No. Slide 4 highlights a 'Human In The Loop' approach, stating the platform is designed for community managers and human curators, using automatic filters that learn from their feedback.

What are the primary ROI metrics claimed in the deck?

On Slide 4, the company claims to reduce moderation costs by 2x and proactively flag 80% of breaching content before it is viewed by the public.

Is there a competitive analysis in the Checkstep deck?

No. The 7-slide deck does not include a competitor matrix or a 'Why Us' slide comparing Checkstep to other AI moderation tools like Bespoke or Unitary.

Checkstep Pitch Deck: All 7 Slides + Teardown

See all 7 slides of the Checkstep pitch deck — a 2024 Seed deck in AI — with a slide-by-slide teardown of what the deck does well and where it falls short.

Checkstep’s deck is a concise, product-centric presentation that leans heavily into the regulatory 'stick' and the operational 'carrot.' By highlighting specific legislation like the Online Safety Bill and the Digital Service Act, the company positions itself as a necessary compliance layer for any platform hosting user-generated content. The deck claims significant efficiency gains, including flagging 80% of breaching content before it is seen and doubling moderation efficiency. However, the deck is notably incomplete by traditional standards: it lacks a team slide, a formal financial ask, a…

Key takeaways

The deck identifies a specific regulatory tailwind, citing the Online Safety Bill and Digital Service Act as primary market drivers (Slide 3).
Checkstep claims their AI flags 80% of breaching content before it is ever seen by a user (Slide 4).
The platform promises a 2x reduction in moderation costs through its 'Human In The Loop' design (Slide 4).
The product architecture is described as 'Headless Workflow Management,' allowing for integration into existing infrastructure (Slide 5).
The deck lists specific categories of 'Online Harms' it automates, including terrorist content, child pornography, and financial scams (Slide 6).
Customer proof points are presented as anonymized case studies, such as a Global Streaming Platform with 2M uploads per month (Slide 7).
The deck completely omits a team slide, failing to highlight the founders' expertise in AI or safety.
There is no 'Ask' slide or financial projection, suggesting this may be a teaser deck or part of a larger presentation (Slide 7).

The 7-Slide Compliance Play: Checkstep's Seed Deck

Checkstep, a London-based AI startup, raised $5M in 2024 to tackle the growing crisis of content moderation. Their pitch deck is a masterclass in brevity, focusing almost exclusively on the problem-solution fit within a highly regulated environment. While most decks aim for 12-15 slides, Checkstep manages to convey a complex technical product in just seven. This teardown examines how they used regulatory pressure and operational efficiency to secure their Seed funding.

Slide 1: Title and Vision

The cover slide is minimalist, featuring the Checkstep logo and the tagline "GROWING HEALTHY ONLINE COMMUNITIES." It includes the company URL and a date of May 2022. The branding is clean, using 3D geometric shapes that suggest a modern, tech-forward aesthetic. It sets a professional tone without over-promising on the cover.

Slide 2: The Value of User-Generated Content

Slide 2 establishes the market context with the headline "User-generated Content is Gold." It frames the opportunity around the idea that "User content drives revenue." However, it immediately introduces the friction point: the "Need for a unified platform to structure, manage, and monetize user-generated content." By starting with the value of the content rather than the 'evil' of the content, Checkstep aligns itself with the business goals of its potential clients (social platforms and forums).

Slide 3: The Cost of Mismanagement

This is the 'Problem' slide, titled "But Managing User-Generated Content is Costly." It breaks the problem into three distinct categories:

Direct costs: Specifically human moderation. · Indirect costs: Negative user impact, attacks on minorities, and the 'existential crisis' of being deplatformed. · Regulatory pressure: This is the most critical section, citing the Online Safety Bill, Digital Service Act, and Section 230.

By citing specific laws, Checkstep moves the product from a 'nice-to-have' to a 'must-have' for legal compliance.

Slide 4: The AI-First Solution

Slide 4 introduces the product as an "AI-First Platform-as-a-Service to Manage User-Generated Content." This slide is the meat of the deck, offering four key value pillars:

Full Content Lifecycle: Policy simulation and proactive detection. · Human In The Loop: Tools for community managers where filters learn from human feedback. · Return On Investment: The slide claims the system "Flags 80% of breaching content before it is seen" and "Reduces moderation cost by 2x." · Compliance: Transparency, fairness, and bias reporting.

The inclusion of the "2x" cost reduction is a powerful hook for Seed-stage investors looking for clear unit economic improvements.

Slide 5: Product Architecture

Titled "Our Product," this slide gets into the technical implementation. It highlights "Headless Workflow Management," suggesting that Checkstep can be integrated into any existing infrastructure via API rather than requiring a total platform overhaul. It also mentions an "AI Services Marketplace," which allows customers to mix native Checkstep AI with 3rd-party safety features. This modularity is a strong selling point for enterprise clients who may already have some legacy tools in place.

Slide 6: Online Harms Automation

Slide 6 provides a granular look at what the AI actually does. It categorizes 'harms' into:

Healthy Conversations: Hate speech, harassment, and adult content. · Protection Against Bad Actors: Terrorist content, child pornography, and scams. · Compliance: Copyrights and PII (Personally Identifiable Information).

It also reiterates the regulatory angle by mentioning the "German NetzDG" workflow. This slide serves as a checklist for a Head of Trust & Safety, proving the tool covers the full spectrum of modern moderation needs.

Slide 7: Social Proof and Case Studies

The final slide, "They Trust Checkstep," uses five anonymized case studies to demonstrate market traction:

Large UK Forum: Focus on T&C enforcement. · Global Streaming Platform: Handling 2M video uploads per month across 10 policy breaches. · Classified Ad Website: Filtering inappropriate ads for an expat community. · Large European Forum: 2M active users, filtering hate speech. · Wellbeing Platform: 10K members in a large Asian country.

While the names are hidden, the scale (2M uploads/users) provides the necessary evidence that the technology can handle high-volume enterprise traffic.

What Checkstep Does Exceptionally Well

Checkstep excels at quantifying the value proposition. Many AI startups speak in vague terms about 'better algorithms.' Checkstep gives investors two hard numbers to latch onto: 80% proactive detection and a 2x reduction in cost (Slide 4). These metrics turn a technical product into a financial instrument for potential customers.

Furthermore, the regulatory alignment is perfectly timed. By listing the Online Safety Bill and Digital Service Act (Slide 3), they are not just selling a tool; they are selling 'insurance' against massive government fines. For investors, a product tied to mandatory compliance is often more attractive than a discretionary marketing tool.

What is Missing from the Checkstep Deck

The most glaring omission is a Team Slide. In a Seed round, investors are primarily betting on the founders' ability to execute. There is no mention of the founders' backgrounds, their previous exits, or their specific expertise in machine learning or trust and safety. This is highly unusual for a successful $5M raise and suggests that this deck might have been a follow-up to a more personal introductory meeting.

Additionally, there is no 'Ask' or 'Use of Funds' slide. We don't know how much they were seeking (though we know the outcome was $5M) or what they planned to do with the capital—whether that was hiring more engineers, expanding into the US market, or building out the AI marketplace mentioned on Slide 5.

Finally, the deck lacks a Competitive Landscape. The content moderation space is crowded, with players like Hive, ActiveFence, and Spectrum Labs. Checkstep does not explain why their 'headless' approach or 'marketplace' model is superior to these established competitors.

Founder's Playbook: What to Copy

Founders should emulate Checkstep’s modular product breakdown. Slide 5 and Slide 6 do a great job of explaining a complex AI backend by breaking it into 'Headless Workflow,' 'Marketplace,' and 'Policy Management.' This makes the product feel like a tangible suite of tools rather than a 'black box' algorithm.

Another takeaway is the use of anonymized but specific traction. If you cannot name your clients due to NDAs, follow Checkstep’s lead on Slide 7: provide the industry, the region, and a specific scale metric (e.g., "2M active users"). This builds credibility without breaching confidentiality. Lastly, if your industry is facing new regulations, put the names of those laws in bold. It creates a sense of urgency that helps close rounds faster.

Frequently asked questions

How much did Checkstep raise with this deck?: According to publisher reports from Business Insider, Checkstep raised $5M in a Seed round in 2024. The deck itself does not state the amount raised or the valuation.
What specific regulations does Checkstep help companies comply with?: Slide 3 explicitly mentions the Online Safety Bill, the Digital Service Act, and Section 230. Slide 6 also notes region-specific workflows, specifically citing the German NetzDG law.
Does Checkstep replace human moderators entirely?: No. Slide 4 highlights a 'Human In The Loop' approach, stating the platform is designed for community managers and human curators, using automatic filters that learn from their feedback.
What are the primary ROI metrics claimed in the deck?: On Slide 4, the company claims to reduce moderation costs by 2x and proactively flag 80% of breaching content before it is viewed by the public.
Is there a competitive analysis in the Checkstep deck?: No. The 7-slide deck does not include a competitor matrix or a 'Why Us' slide comparing Checkstep to other AI moderation tools like Bespoke or Unitary.

Cover slide of the Checkstep pitch deck — Seed 2024 — Checkstep pitch deck, slide 1 (2024)

Checkstep pitch deck: the facts

Company: Checkstep
Year: 2024
Stage: Seed
Slides: 7
Sector: AI / Content Moderation
Deck type: Investor Pitch
Outcome: $5M Raised
Headquarters: London, UK

Checkstep pitch deck PDF

The full Checkstep deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the Checkstep pitch deck was used for

This pitch deck is for **Checkstep**, a London-based AI content moderation startup, used to raise a **$5M seed round in 2022** to scale its contextual AI platform for managing user-generated content.[1][4][8][10][12] The 7-slide deck emphasizes the rising regulatory and operational burden of moderating online communities, referencing frameworks such as the Online Safety Bill, Digital Services Act, Section 230, and Germany’s NetzDG.[1][12] It positions Checkstep as an AI-first, platform-as-a-service covering the full content lifecycle, with human-in-the-loop workflows for community managers and moderators.[1][2][4] The stated use of funds in contemporaneous coverage was to further develop the technology, expand trust & safety features, and invest in sales and marketing for growth.[1][4][8]

Business model: AI-powered content moderation platform (B2B SaaS) providing contextual moderation and trust & safety tools to social media and enterprise platforms.[1][4][8][11]

Round: Seed[1][4][8][10]
Raised: $5M seed round closed in May 2022.[1][4][8][10]
Lead investor: Dawn Capital and Form Ventures (co-led seed round).[1][4][8]
Investors: Dawn Capital (co-lead)[1][4][8], Form Ventures (co-lead)[1][4][8], Founders of GoCardless[1][4][8], Founders of Indeed[1], Founders of Redbus Media Group / Redbus Media[1][4]
Founded: May 2020[8][10]
Founders: Guillaume Bouchard[8][10]
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom[4][8][9][10]
Industry: AI content moderation / Trust & Safety infrastructure[1][4][8][11]

Year: 2022[1][4][8][10]

Total funding: Approximately $7.4M across multiple rounds as of February 2026.[10]

Use of funds as presented: Further develop Checkstep’s AI content moderation technology, enhance trust & safety features (including blurring and auditing of images), and expand sales and marketing to support growth and brand awareness.[1][2][4][8]

What happened after the Checkstep deck

Following the use of this deck, Checkstep successfully closed a $5M seed round in 2022 and has continued to raise capital and expand its AI-powered content moderation platform, supported by both venture investors and strategic capital for R&D and international expansion.[1][4][6][7][8][10][11]

Closed a $5M seed round in May 2022 co-led by Dawn Capital and Form Ventures, with participation from the founders of Go
Previously raised approximately $1.8M in seed/pre-seed funding in 2021 to develop its contextual AI product.[2][5][8][10
By February 2026, third-party data indicated total funding of about $7.4M across three rounds.[7][10]
Checkstep later announced an additional £3M funding round in April 2026 led by Alea Capital Partners, with Slow Ventures

What the Checkstep deck got right

Compelling alignment with global regulatory tailwinds. The deck ties Checkstep’s value proposition directly to major regulatory regimes (Online Safety Bill, Digital Services Act, Section 230, NetzDG), positioning the product as a solution to emerging legal obligations rather than a discretionary tool.[1][2][12]
End-to-end content lifecycle coverage. Checkstep presents itself as an AI-first platform-as-a-service covering the full content lifecycle—policy simulation, prioritization, proactive detection, configurable actions, and appeals—addressing multiple stages of the moderation workflow in one system.[1][2][4]
Pragmatic human-in-the-loop approach. The deck highlights a human-in-the-loop design aimed at community managers and human curators, addressing real-world operational needs and concerns about fully automated moderation.[1][2]
Clear, quantifiable efficiency claims. Concrete impact claims—flagging 80% of breaching content before it is seen and reducing moderation costs by 2x—offer clear, quantifiable benefits that resonate with both buyers and investors.[1][2]
Broad coverage of harms and compliance scenarios. The platform targets multiple, clearly named harm and compliance categories (hate speech, harassment, terrorist content, child pornography, spam/scams, copyright, PII), showing breadth and practical applicability across trust & safety use cases.[1][2][4]
Strong investor validation at seed. Seed round backing by Dawn Capital and Form Ventures, plus participation from notable founders, provides strong external validation of both the market opportunity and team capabilities.[1][4][8]

What could have been stronger

Limited evidence behind bold efficiency metrics. The deck mentions a 2x reduction in moderation cost and flagging 80% of breaching content before it is seen, but the available slide text and coverage do not reference specific customer logos, case studies, or measured before/after benchmarks that substantiate these performance claims.[1][2]
Compliance narrative without detailed security or audit proof points. The slides emphasize regulatory frameworks (Online Safety Bill, DSA, Section 230, NetzDG) and compliance features but do not, in the visible text, detail security certifications, data handling practices, or audit mechanisms that many enterprise buyers expect in trust & safety tooling.[1][2]
Broad product vision with unclear initial market focus. The product scope described—full content lifecycle, multiple harm categories, custom models, region-specific workflows—suggests a broad platform, but the available deck text does not clearly prioritize initial ICPs, segments, or go-to-market focus, which may leave investors with questions about near-term focus and sales motion.[1][2][4]
Sparse explicit traction metrics in visible slides. While Checkstep raised $5M and media note growing regulatory pressure, the OCR-visible slides do not explicitly show revenue figures, user metrics, or retention, making it harder to assess traction at the time of this seed raise.[1][2][4][8][10]

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

Strong regulatory tailwinds from the Online Safety Bill, Digital Services Act, Section 230 debates, and laws like Germany’s NetzDG drive urgency for automated trust & safety tooling.[1][2][12]
Clear problem framing around high direct costs of human moderation and indirect costs from reputational damage, minority attacks, and business risk from bad actors.[1]
AI-first, full content lifecycle platform with human-in-the-loop workflows and configurable actions directly targets operational pain points for community managers and moderation teams.[1][2][4]
Specific value claims (80% of breaching content flagged pre-exposure; 2x reduction in moderation costs) create a compelling efficiency narrative if validated with customer data.[1][2]
Co-leading investors Dawn Capital and Form Ventures bring B2B SaaS and regulatory expertise, signaling credibility in both software and policy-heavy markets.[1][4][8]

Risks that stand out

Regulatory frameworks highlighted in the deck (Online Safety Bill, DSA, Section 230, NetzDG) may evolve, creating complexity and potential misalignment between product roadmap and eventual legal requirements.[1][2][12]
Content moderation is a crowded and strategically sensitive space, with major platforms often building in-house tools and several specialized vendors competing on AI accuracy and cost.[4][8][9]
Bold promises around automation and cost reduction risk customer dissatisfaction if models underperform on nuanced or context-dependent harms, especially across different languages and cultures.[1][2][4]
Dependence on large platform customers for scale could lead to revenue concentration risk and strong bargaining power on pricing and integration terms.[4][8][9]

Questions this deck invites

Can Checkstep provide cohort-level data or audited case studies that validate the claims of flagging 80% of breaching content before it is seen and reducing moderation costs by 2x for real customers?[1][2]
How does the model performance vary across harm categories (e.g., hate speech vs. spam vs. copyright) and across languages and regions, especially in relation to false positives that might harm user experience?[1][2][4]
What are the primary customer segments (e.g., social networks, marketplaces, gaming, enterprise communities), current ACVs, and typical sales cycle length at the time of the seed round?[1][4][8][10]
How does Checkstep maintain compliance with evolving regulations (Online Safety Bill, DSA, Section 230, regional regimes like NetzDG), and what internal expertise or partnerships support ongoing policy updates?[1][2][12]
What are the key competitors in AI content moderation and trust & safety infrastructure, and how do Checkstep’s contextual models, human-in-the-loop workflows, and reporting capabilities compare in independent benchmarks?[1][4][8]

What founders can take from the Checkstep deck

Anchoring a pitch in concrete regulatory drivers (Online Safety Bill, Digital Services Act, Section 230, NetzDG) can make a trust & safety product feel urgent and unavoidable for platforms operating in multiple jurisdictions.[1][2][12]
Quantified impact claims like "flags 80% of breaching content before it is seen" and "reduces moderation cost by 2x" help translate complex AI technology into business outcomes investors can quickly grasp.[1][2]
Positioning as a full content lifecycle platform—with policy simulation, prioritization, proactive detection, and appeals—illustrates a system-level understanding of the moderation workflow rather than a point solution.[1][2][4]
Explicit “human-in-the-loop” framing addresses investor and customer concerns about fully automated moderation and highlights a pragmatic balance between AI and human oversight.[1][2]
Segmenting harms (online abuse, bad actors, compliance) and listing concrete categories like hate speech, terrorist content, child pornography, spam, copyright, and PII clarifies the breadth of use cases without requiring deep technical detail on each.[1][2]
Backing from investors with both B2B SaaS and regulatory expertise (Dawn Capital, Form Ventures) reinforces the narrative that trust & safety is simultaneously a technology and policy problem.[1][4][8]

Checkstep pitch deck: common questions

What does Checkstep do?

Checkstep is an AI-powered content moderation platform that provides contextual analysis of text, images, video, and other user-generated content to help online platforms detect and act on harmful content while promoting healthy conversations and regulatory compliance.[1][4][6][8][11]

How much did Checkstep raise with this pitch deck and when?

Checkstep raised a **$5M seed round in May 2022**, described in media as a seed or early-stage VC round, used for developing its AI moderation technology and expanding sales and marketing.[1][4][8][10] The pitch deck referenced in Business Insider is the one used for this $5M seed raise.[1][12]

Who invested in Checkstep’s $5M seed round?

The $5M seed round was **co-led by Dawn Capital and Form Ventures**, with additional participation reported from the founders of GoCardless, Indeed, and Redbus Media Group.[1][4][8]

Who founded Checkstep and where is it based?

Checkstep was founded in **May 2020** by **Guillaume Bouchard**, who serves as CEO; some sources also list CTO Jonathan Manfield as a co-founder.[8][9][10][14] The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.[4][8][9][10]

What are the key claims or metrics in Checkstep’s pitch deck?

The deck presents Checkstep’s AI-first platform-as-a-service, claiming it can flag 80% of breaching content before it is seen, reduce moderation costs by 2x, and help platforms comply with regulations like the Online Safety Bill, Digital Services Act, Section 230, copyright and PII rules, and region-specific laws such as Germany’s NetzDG.[1][2]

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-30 from the pages below.

Checkstep pitch deck slides

Checkstep pitch deck slide 1 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 1 of 7

Checkstep pitch deck slide 2 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 2 of 7

Checkstep pitch deck slide 3 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 3 of 7

Checkstep pitch deck slide 4 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 4 of 7

Checkstep pitch deck slide 5 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 5 of 7

Checkstep pitch deck slide 6 of 7 — Checkstep pitch deck — slide 6 of 7

What each slide of the Checkstep pitch deck says

Slide 1

GROWING HEALTHY ONLINE COMMUNITIES N WWW.CHECKSTEP.COM MAY 2022

Slide 2

7 checkstep User-generated Content is Gold judd E =) Social Strikes Back — GN» od User content drives revenue V4 hb Need for a unified platform to ny § L structure, manage, and monetize g user-generated content 2

Slide 3

But Managing User-Generated Content is Costly # There're many & And is getting problems — worse Direct costs Regulations + Human moderation + Online Safety Bill - Digital Service Act Indirect costs « Section 230 - Negatively affects users + Attacks on minorities - Businesses co-opted by bad actors - Existential crisis/deplatform

Slide 4

%, checkstep Al-First Platform-as-a-Servi ce to Manage User-Generated Content © CHECKSTEP 2022 All rights reserved Q Full Content Lifecycle Remove unwanted and promote good content * Policy simulation * Content review prioritization * Proactive detection * Configurable actions, including appeal Human In The Loop Designed for: * Community managers Human curators * Automatic filters learn from feedback Return On Investment * Flags 80% of breaching content before it is seen * Reduces moderation cost by 2x Compliance With Regulations * Transparency, faimess and bias reporting * Reason and explanations for each decision * Updates, measurements and actions in one place

Slide 5

| El Headless Workflow Management =] - « Integrates easily within any infrastructure Fee + Monitoring and queue management vay = / ® Al Services Marketplace S—— a QP | Tne bestof: Customer Al Native Chackstep Al aE [ = 3rd-party Al Moderator safety features ) i ae Policy Management = ae ft Effective enforcement of T&C, explanations, appeal. + Local regulations. Just pick the ones that apply. NS

Slide 6

Online Harms Automation g Healthy Conversations * Hate speech * Harassment and bullying * Adult explicit content Custom models such as topics filters Protection Against Bad Actors @ * Terrorist content * Child pornography + Spam and financial scams Custom models such as fraud and webrisk classifiers Compliance g « Copyrights * Personally Identifiable Information (Pll) Region specific workflow such as German NetzdG

Slide text above is read directly from the Checkstep deck PDF embedded on this page.