Meedan

What Meedan does

Meedan is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit technology organization founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco that builds digital tools for journalists, newsrooms, and civil society organizations to combat misinformation, verify content, and facilitate community engagement. Its core products include Check, a multi-language verification and fact-checking platform that recorded 143,631 unique users in 2025 with tiplines supporting 34 languages and dialects, and Suwali, an AI-powered chatbot that transforms organizational archives into searchable, interactive knowledge bases while drawing responses exclusively from verified data to prevent AI hallucinations. Underlying capabilities include proprietary machine-learning classifiers for linguistically diverse content (Swahili, Levantine Arabic, African French), synthetic media and generative-AI content verification tools, and ML for detecting tech-facilitated gender-based violence. The platform operates across 57 countries through partner organizations and is published in open-source form on GitHub.

The organization runs a nonprofit revenue model funded primarily through philanthropic grants and donations rather than commercial pricing. Recent grants include $500,000 from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (December 2023), $2 million via the Skoll Foundation's 2024 Skoll Award for Social Innovation, $1 million from Press Forward (July 2025), and a prior $255,997 NSF grant (July 2021), supplemented by individual donations via donorbox.org. Meedan's go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: tools are distributed via self-serve web access (Check, suwali.io), open-source availability on GitHub, and pilot partnerships with newsrooms and civil society organizations including Al Manassa in Egypt (800,000 monthly visitors) and The Quint in India, with major product announcements staged at global forums such as the Skoll World Forum in Oxford. The organization holds Thoropass AICPA SOC 2 Type II certification covering its platform and infrastructure, supporting partner and enterprise trust in its data handling practices.

Name

Meedan

Legal name

Meedan

Website

https://meedan.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Meedan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds AI-powered verification and engagement tools—Check (multi-language fact-checking) and Suwali (archive-grounded chatbot)—for newsrooms and civil society organizations combating misinformation across 57 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Media Verification Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Authenticity, Watermarking & Deepfake Detection (HDAAAKAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG), Human Oversight, Review & Content Moderation Tooling (HDAAAMAH)

Keywords

• Fact-checking platform
• Misinformation detection
• Verification tools
• Open-source civic technology
• Linguistic AI classification

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Grants & Philanthropic Funding: Meedan operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The majority of its revenue comes from grants and philanthropic funding from foundations. Recent grants include $500,000 from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation for synthetic media and GenAI content verification, and $2 million from the Skoll Foundation via the 2024 Skoll Award for Social Innovation.
2. Donations: Individual and organizational donations supported via donorbox.org platform. Meedan actively solicits public donations as part of its funding model.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Meedan builds open-source software tools for newsrooms and civil society organizations to combat misinformation, verify content, and facilitate community engagement. Its two primary products are Check, a fact-checking and verification platform with 143,631 unique users in 2025 supporting 34 languages and dialects, and Suwali, a generative-AI chatbot that converts verified organizational archives into searchable, interactive knowledge bases with responses grounded exclusively in the organization's own verified data to prevent AI hallucinations.

Product overview

Meedan offers a portfolio of digital tools focused on combating misinformation, promoting election integrity, and addressing online harm globally. The product suite centers on two primary tools: Check (a fact-checking and verification platform with 143,631 unique users in 2025 supporting 34 languages) and Suwali (an AI-powered chatbot that transforms organizational archives into interactive knowledge bases). Meedan also addresses tech-facilitated gender-based violence through machine learning classification. The organization operates across 57 countries and partners with newsrooms and civil society groups to help people get informed, exercise their rights, and participate in democracy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Suwali: An AI-powered chatbot designed to help newsrooms and civil society groups facilitate interactive community engagement. It transforms organizational archives into a searchable, interactive knowledge base, drawing answers exclusively from the organization's own verified data.
• Check

Products and services

• Check

Quantifiable outcome

• 143,631 unique users of Check tool in 2025
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Al ManassacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026Al Manassa, an Egyptian independent media outlet, is the key development and pilot partner for Meedan's Suwali chatbot. With 800,000 monthly visitors mostly from Egypt, Al Manassa is currently testing Suwali before its wider public rollout expected by end of year. The chatbot transforms Al Manassa's archives into a searchable, interactive knowledge base drawing exclusively from verified data.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Full Fact: UK-based fact-checking charity operating automated verification tools and tiplines for newsrooms globally. Closest comparable to Meedan's Check platform, sharing the same nonprofit, multilingual, newsroom-focused model and serving many of the same civil society use cases.
• Logically: AI-powered content integrity platform combining fact-checking, narrative intelligence, and threat detection for governments, enterprises, and platforms. Directly comparable to Meedan's verification/synthetic media work but with a commercial, enterprise-led GTM.
• ActiveFence: Trust & safety platform providing AI-driven content moderation, misinformation detection, and threat intelligence at scale. Comparable to Meedan's Check and synthetic media verification offerings but targeting enterprise/platform customers commercially.
• Sensity AI: Specialist deepfake and synthetic media detection platform for enterprises, governments, and platforms. Directly comparable to Meedan's synthetic media verification capability, with overlapping technology and use cases.
• Truepic: Content authenticity and provenance infrastructure using cryptographic signing and C2PA-aligned standards. Comparable to Meedan's content authenticity work, focused on verifying the origin and integrity of digital media.
• Blackbird AI: Narrative intelligence platform detecting misinformation campaigns, coordinated inauthentic behavior, and harmful narratives. Comparable to Meedan's Check platform, particularly around tracking misinformation across multiple languages and sources.
• Hive: AI content moderation and classification API including deepfake, text, and image detection. Comparable to Meedan's ML classifiers for content verification, though Hive operates commercially via API.
• Maldita.es: Spanish fact-checking nonprofit with WhatsApp tiplines and structured verification methodologies. Comparable to Meedan's Check platform and tipline approach; peer among European fact-checking civil society organizations.
• First Draft: Former nonprofit (now part of Information Futures Lab at Brown) focused on verification training and tools for journalists. Historically a direct peer to Meedan in the newsroom verification and misinformation training space.

Others

• Content Authenticity Initiative: Adobe-led cross-industry coalition building C2PA content provenance standards. Adjacent to Meedan's synthetic media verification work, providing the underlying standard ecosystem rather than a competing product.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/meedan
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/meedan
• Xx.com/meedan
• Facebookfacebook.com/54421674438

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Meedan