The Logically Dossier: Lyric Jain's AI Mission Against Misinformation
Who is Lyric Jain? Deep dive into the Logically founder, his Cambridge/MIT background & $25M AI venture fighting online threats globally.
What drives someone to dedicate their career to fighting the tidal wave of online misinformation? For Lyric Jain Founder and CEO of Logically, it began with a mission to improve how we consume and interact with information online, leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). His journey, from top universities to building a globally recognised AI company tackling disinformation, is a fascinating study in purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
I recently had the chance to sit down with Lyric for an in-depth conversation on the Founder Thesis podcast, exploring the incredible story behind Logically – its pivotal moments, technological breakthroughs, and the sheer scale of the challenge it addresses. You can dive deeper into that conversation here: [Link to Podcast Episode]
This article serves as a comprehensive dossier on Lyric Jain and his venture, Logically, drawing insights from our conversation and publicly available information to paint a full picture of the founder and the AI powerhouse he leads.
From Cambridge & MIT to Tackling Global Issues 🎓
Lyric Jain's academic background laid a strong foundation for tackling complex technological challenges. He holds a Master of Engineering (MEng) from the prestigious University of Cambridge (2014-2018). His pursuit of knowledge also took him across the pond for stints at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studying Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science (2016-2017), and even a summer programme focused on Economics and Finance at Harvard University (2012).
Before founding Logically, Lyric gained experience through internships at major corporations like Goldman Sachs and Rolls-Royce, and served as Director of New Product Development at AVOCET HARDWARE (UK) LTD for over five years. This blend of elite technical education and practical business experience provided a unique perspective as he turned his attention to the burgeoning problem of online information integrity.
Founding Logically: The Genesis of an AI Mission 💡
In June 2017, Lyric Jain founded Logically, driven by a core mission: using Artificial Intelligence to analyse the vast quantities of online information, assess its credibility, and ultimately improve civic discourse.
"Logically is a social enterprise specialising in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve how we consume and interact with information online... Fundamental to our mission is improving civic discourse."
Initially, the focus included a consumer-facing app designed to provide users with credible analysis and context around news content. The early vision involved features like objective summaries, diverse political viewpoints, timelines, and even semi-automated fact-checking services.
The Strategic Pivot: From Consumer App to Enterprise Powerhouse 🔄
While the consumer app gained some traction, particularly during high-stakes events like the 2019 Indian elections, Lyric shared a crucial learning on the podcast:
"As soon as [the election] subsided we just saw the retention numbers just completely die."
This challenge with sustained consumer engagement led to a critical strategic re-evaluation. A turning point came during a pilot project for the Maharashtra elections in India. Initially conceived partly as a marketing effort for the consumer app, the engagement quickly demonstrated immense value to the election authorities.
"...that relationship and that engagement [with the Election Commission] ended up becoming commercial and that was the first bit of revenue that we got and that's where life became a bit interesting for us..."
The results were striking. Logically's approach identified exponentially more potential violations of the model code of conduct than traditional methods:
"...in Maharashtra alone I think the number we got to was twenty Thousand... in 1 state we found 20 times more than what kind of the status quo found across the whole nation just three months earlier."
This success illuminated the significant market need and opportunity in the B2B and B2G (Business-to-Government) space. Logically pivoted, focusing its resources on developing sophisticated AI-driven threat intelligence and fact-checking solutions for large organisations – governments, social media platforms, and enterprises.
Logically Today: An AI-Driven Trust & Safety Engine ⚙️
Logically now stands as a key player in the global Trust and Safety landscape. Its core offering revolves around an AI-powered platform designed to detect, analyse, and enable responses to harmful online content at scale.
Key Capabilities & Scale:
Massive Scale Processing: The platform ingests and analyses over 15 million pieces of content daily from across the open internet.
Multimodal Analysis: Going beyond text, Logically's technology (especially newer versions) is designed to handle images, audio, and video, including complex formats like memes or text within images.
Multi-Lingual Support: The platform operates across various languages, including English and at least 12 major Indian languages, using techniques like cross-lingual embeddings and translation.
AI + Human Expertise: Recognising AI's limitations, Logically employs a crucial human layer. This includes teams of fact-checkers and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysts who review AI findings, handle complex cases, and provide deep contextual understanding. Rigorous quality control, sometimes involving three human reviewers for sensitive content, underpins the process.
"This is sensitive stuff... has pretty long-term implications in terms of how trustworthy we are... it's almost like a pretty intensive quality control process that we're running."
Business Model, Traction & Growth 📈
Logically operates primarily on a recurring revenue (ARR) model, offering its platform and services via subscription.
The "Situation Room" Concept: Pricing is often based on the size and complexity of the "information environment" a client needs monitored – factoring in volume of posts, number of languages, and data modalities (text, image, video etc.).
Platform + Service: Understanding that many organisations lack dedicated internal teams, Logically offers both direct platform access (SaaS) and a "Platform + Delivery" model where their expert teams utilise the platform to provide insights and reports – akin to Palantir's approach.
"There's still very few people in the world who understand how to deal with misinformation and disinformation... a lot of the organizations... don't have specific analysts or dedicated resources."
Key Clients: Logically serves major social media platforms (including Meta - Facebook & Instagram - and TikTok) and government agencies across the UK, US, and India, tackling use cases vital for democratic functions and public safety.
Funding: The company's traction and potential attracted significant investment, culminating in a $25 million Series A funding round announced a couple of years ago.
Team: As of our conversation, Logically employed around 170-180 people globally, with significant presences in the UK (AI, Product, HQ) and India (Engineering, Subject Matter Experts), plus a team in the US. At the time, they were actively hiring for around 70 additional roles, signaling continued expansion.
Tackling Global Challenges: Use Cases 🌐
Logically's technology is applied across critical domains where information integrity is paramount:
Election Integrity: Identifying foreign interference, voter suppression tactics, and harmful narratives targeting electoral processes.
Public Health: Combating vaccine misinformation, fake cures, and health-related scams.
Public Safety: Detecting incitement to violence, communal hatred, and coordinated harassment campaigns.
National Security: Monitoring state-sponsored disinformation, foreign influence operations, and emerging threats.
The Future of Logically & Information Integrity ✨
Lyric Jain envisions Logically playing a crucial role in building a healthier online ecosystem.
Vision: He aspires for Logically, or the broader ecosystem of independent trust and safety providers, to function almost like an "S&P or a Moody's but for the online information environment."
Emerging Threats: The company actively monitors and develops defenses against new disinformation vectors, such as sophisticated synthetic text generation and psychological tactics like the "2 truths and a lie" framework.
Enterprise & New Markets: Logically is expanding its focus to the enterprise market, addressing risks like conspiracy-driven threats targeting corporations, financial market manipulation (including the volatile Crypto space), and brand safety/reputation attacks.
Conclusion: A Leader in the Fight for Digital Truth
Lyric Jain's journey with Logically showcases the power of combining deep technological expertise with a clear mission to address a critical global challenge. From academic roots at Cambridge and MIT to leading a ~180-person company processing millions of data points daily, Logically has navigated strategic pivots and complex markets to become a significant force in the fight against online misinformation and disinformation. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, Lyric Jain and Logically are positioned at the forefront, developing the AI tools and human expertise needed to foster a more trustworthy online world.
Listen now!
Other Ways to Listen:
Before you go……the analytics only tell me so much, I want to hear what you feel and think about the conversations.
Mail me at ad@thepodium.in with your comments & feedback or if you just want to hear my comments on your startup idea - I love getting your emails!
Until the next founder's thesis📕,
Your host, AD