Trace Labs
Trace Labs is a Canadian nonprofit that crowdsources open-source intelligence through gamified Search Party CTF competitions, producing intelligence reports for law enforcement on real missing persons cases while training a global volunteer OSINT community.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersVancouver, Canada
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Trace Labs does
Trace Labs is a Vancouver, Canada-based nonprofit organization founded in 2018 that crowdsources open-source intelligence (OSINT) to assist law enforcement with missing persons investigations. Its core product is the Search Party CTF platform (searchparty.tracelabs.org), a gamified Capture The Flag competition in which teams of up to four investigators submit intelligence flags on real missing persons cases within a timed event, with flags judged by volunteer coaches and converted into intelligence reports delivered to law enforcement. Supporting infrastructure includes the Trace Labs OSINT VM, a curated virtual machine containing domain, email, phone, social media, username, and data-analysis tools pre-installed for investigations; the F1NDX three-level OSINT educational series (Foundation, Investigations, Advanced Techniques); weekly OSINT challenges released on Discord; and 11,413 digital badges issued via CanCred for participant recognition.
The organization's revenue is non-traditional for a technology platform because it is a registered nonprofit. Cash inflows come from three streams: individual and corporate donations, CTF ticket sales (20 USD per contestant, with a 50% student discount funded by HeirRight), and corporate sponsorships from a broad roster of OSINT and security vendors (Lenso.ai, KASE Scenarios, Hunchly, OSMOSIS Association, Maltego, Social Links, Eyematch.ai, OSINTLeak, UserSearch, Kasm, Epieos, CrowdThreat, Noimosiny, Sockpuppet.io, The OSINTion, CanCred). It does not sell to its primary beneficiaries; law enforcement agencies (e.g., Toronto Police Services, The National Child Protection Task Force, and dozens of unnamed agencies) receive intelligence reports without charge, while law enforcement, families of missing persons, and security researchers/OSINT practitioners constitute the served segments. Go-to-market is community-led through a 24,576-member Discord, conference presence at DEF CON and LeHack, content marketing via the Trace Labs blog and Breadcrumbs podcast, and YouTube and GitHub distribution channels.
Operationally, the organization is volunteer-driven with 1-10 paid staff equivalents and has accumulated 492 assisted cases across 52+ international Search Party events. In March 2026, founder Robert Sell expanded leadership by appointing Sarah Miller (Director of Community & Programs) and Nataly Sheinin (Director of Technology & Platform), creating a Support Operations Program co-led by Andrin and Timon Stalder, and realigning Reporting and Training under the new directors. A December 2025 badge platform migration to CanCred and a planned 2026 website overhaul indicate active technology modernization on a nonprofit budget.
Trace Labs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Trace Labs
- Legal name
- Trace Labs
- Website
- https://tracelabs.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Trace Labs is a Canadian nonprofit that crowdsources open-source intelligence through gamified Search Party CTF competitions, producing intelligence reports for law enforcement on real missing persons cases while training a global volunteer OSINT community.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Trace Labs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Nonprofit Public-Safety / Crowdsourced OSINT for Missing Persons
- NAICS
- Investigation and Personal Background Check Services (561611), Investigation and Security Services (5616)
- SIC
- Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital/Online Investigations & OSINT (Non-cyber) (BPAKAEAF)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Litigation Support & Civil Investigations (Witness/Asset/Skip Tracing) (BPAKAEAE)
Keywords
Where Trace Labs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Vancouver
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Trace Labs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Donations: Trace Labs operates as a nonprofit relying on donations to fund operations, tools, servers, and infrastructure for volunteers.
- CTF Event Tickets: Search Party CTF events charge $20 per contestant for participation, with a 50% student discount funded by HeirRight sponsorship.
- Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate sponsors provide financial and in-kind support to enable Trace Labs operations and mission expansion. Since establishment in 2018, corporate sponsors have supported operational activities.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Standard CTF Ticket |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Student CTF Ticket |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Trace Labs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Trace Labs operates the world's first crowdsourced open-source intelligence (OSINT) Search Party program for missing-persons cases, mobilizing thousands of vetted volunteer analysts via its Discord community to gather publicly available online leads that are then delivered to requesting law-enforcement agencies at no cost. Its complementary offerings include Capture Club (a competitive bounty program), Search Party CTFs and educational training for both volunteers and LE personnel, and outreach events that grow the volunteer base.
Product overview
Trace Labs operates as a nonprofit organization providing a platform-based ecosystem of OSINT tools and services focused on finding missing persons. The core offering consists of the Search Party CTF platform where volunteer investigators compete in timed competitions to gather intelligence on real missing persons cases, supported by the dedicated TL OSINT VM containing pre-configured OSINT tools. Additional offerings include weekly OSINT challenges via Discord and F1NDX structured training programs. The organization also partners with tools like Hunchly (web capture), Lenso.ai (face recognition), and KASE Scenarios (narrative training) to enhance investigative capabilities.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Search Party: The Search Party CTF is the flagship initiative of Trace Labs, a gamified crowdsourced OSINT competition focused on finding missing persons.
- OSINT VM
- F1NDX OSINT Training
Products and services
- Trace Labs OSINT Search Party A structured, time-boxed crowdsourced open-source intelligence operation in which hundreds to thousands of vetted volunteer analysts (drawn from the 24,576+ Discord community) work in coordinated teams to produce publicly sourced leads on a missing person, which are then packaged and delivered to the requesting law-enforcement agency at no cost.
- Capture Club A community-funded bounty program where contributors collectively fund missing-persons bounties and competitively produce OSINT leads; rewards are paid to the contributors whose work meets the criteria, supporting more case throughput than the standard Search Party program.
- Search Party CTF (Capture The Flag) A competition- and training-format CTF event built around missing-persons OSINT scenarios, used both as a learning platform for new volunteers and as a public-facing event that builds the volunteer pipeline.
- Trace Labs Educational Program / Training Structured educational content (talks, written guides, training sessions) that teaches the Trace Labs Search Party methodology and applied OSINT, used to onboard volunteers and to train law-enforcement partners.
Quantifiable outcome
- 492 assisted cases coordinated for missing persons investigations worldwide
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Trace Labs
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Trace Labs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Trace Labs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- OSMOSIS AssociationcoreOSMOSIS Association is the governing body of OSMOSIS — An Association for Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Professionals. Together, they can shape the future of OSINT. Listed as both Strategic Sponsor and Partner.
- Lenso.aicoreAI-powered reverse image search tool with its own facial recognition engine. Helps find more information about specific people, detect potential copyright misuse, and check someone's background. Useful during OSINT investigations. Listed as both Strategic Sponsor and Partner.
- KASE ScenarioscoreImmersive storytelling and real-world inspired OSINT challenges. Prepares participants for careers in the industry through narrative-driven training. Listed as both Strategic Sponsor and Partner.
- HunchlycoreWeb capture tool designed for online investigations. Automatically collects, documents, and annotates every web page visited. Useful for OSINT evidence collection. Listed as both Strategic Sponsor and Partner.
- The National Child Protection Task ForcecoreNonprofit organization focused on child protection. Kevin Metcalf, Founder, states: 'Trace Labs is playing a vital role in response to the epidemic of missing persons and children around the world.' Partnership enhances OSINT investigative capabilities for child protection cases.
- Operation Safe EscapecoreNot For Profit Industry Ally helping spread awareness around Trace Labs mission and providing resources to the community.
- ExegolminorIndustry Ally providing OSINT-related resources and capabilities to enhance Trace Labs investigative work.
- F1NDXcoreHands-On OSINT Training partner providing the F1NDX Educational Series with 3 levels (Foundation, Investigations, Advanced Techniques). Rolled out free educational series on TryHackMe in collaboration with F1NDX.
- MaltegocoreCTF Sponsor providing OSINT investigation platform integration. Maltego is used for link analysis and data mining in OSINT investigations.
- Social LinkscoreCTF Sponsor providing OSINT tools and capabilities for social media analysis and investigations.
- CanCredcoreDigital badge platform used by Trace Labs for issuing and managing digital credentials (badges) for participants. 11,413 digital badges reissued on CanCred platform.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Trace Labs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Babel Street: Commercial data-to-knowledge platform for OSINT, threat intelligence, and identity analytics. A large, well-funded commercial counterpart in the broader OSINT/investigations tooling market that competes for the same enterprise and government budgets.
- Thorn: Nonprofit building technology to combat child sexual exploitation and find trafficking victims. Adjacent in mission and uses a tech-driven approach, with established corporate and law-enforcement relationships.
- Operation Underground Railroad: Nonprofit focused on human trafficking and child exploitation investigations and rescue operations. Comparable in mission scope (recovering missing/victimized persons) and law-enforcement partnership model.
- NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children): Established nonprofit operating the national missing-children hotline, CyberTipline, and family reunification programs. A larger incumbent in the same missing-persons mission space with deeper law-enforcement and government integration.
Emerging players
- Maltego: OSINT link-analysis and data-mining platform used by investigators and security teams. A Trace Labs CTF sponsor; comparable in serving the OSINT practitioner market with tooling, though commercially focused vs. Trace Labs' nonprofit CTF/community model.
- Hunchly: Web-capture and evidence-collection tool built specifically for online investigations. A Trace Labs partner tool; both serve the same OSINT investigator user base, with Hunchly focused on tooling and Trace Labs on community + casework.
- KASE Scenarios: Narrative-driven OSINT training platform with immersive, real-world-inspired challenges. A Trace Labs strategic partner; directly comparable as a complementary training provider for the same OSINT learner market.
Direct peers
- Bellingcat: Open-source investigations collective conducting crowdsourced OSINT research on conflict, crime, and human rights. Directly comparable to Trace Labs as a community-driven OSINT investigations organization that produces actionable intelligence reports for downstream authorities and the public.
- OSINT Combine: Provides professional OSINT training courses, challenges, and certifications. Direct peer as an OSINT training provider; Trace Labs already lists OSINT Combine Academy as a training partner, and both serve the same practitioner audience.
- National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF): Nonprofit that assists law enforcement with missing and exploited children cases using OSINT and digital forensics. A strategic Trace Labs partner addressing the same missing-persons problem with overlapping methodology.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Trace Labs social profiles
Digital presenceTrace Labs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Trace Labs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Trace Labs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Trace Labs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Trace Labs
What does Trace Labs do?
Trace Labs operates the world's first crowdsourced open-source intelligence (OSINT) Search Party program for missing-persons cases, mobilizing thousands of vetted volunteer analysts via its Discord community to gather publicly available online leads that are then delivered to requesting law-enforcement agencies at no cost. Its complementary offerings include Capture Club (a competitive bounty program), Search Party CTFs and educational training for both volunteers and LE personnel, and outreach events that grow the volunteer base.
Is Trace Labs a public or private company?
Trace Labs is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Trace Labs founded?
Trace Labs was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Trace Labs based?
Trace Labs is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Trace Labs make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Donations are the primary driver. The others are CTF Event Tickets and corporate Sponsorships.
Who are Trace Labs's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Babel Street, Thorn, Operation Underground Railroad and NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children). Emerging players are Maltego, Hunchly and KASE Scenarios. Direct peers are Bellingcat, OSINT Combine and National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF).
Does Trace Labs have an API?
No public API is recorded for Trace Labs.
What industry is Trace Labs in?
Trace Labs's product category is Nonprofit Public-Safety / Crowdsourced OSINT for Missing Persons. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAKAEAF, Digital/Online Investigations & OSINT (Non-cyber), with a secondary code of BPAKAEAE, Litigation Support & Civil Investigations (Witness/Asset/Skip Tracing). Its NAICS code is 561611 and its SIC code is 7381.