A $3.6 billion crypto stash sat hidden in a Google spreadsheet. Law enforcement had it in hand, but didn’t know it.
That kind of miss is exactly what CAT Labs was built to prevent.
The Miami-based startup, led by former DEA crypto agent Lili Infante, is developing the tools law enforcement needs to uncover, seize, and secure digital assets before they’re laundered or lost. Its flagship product, Recovery CAT, scans seized data – phones, laptops, cloud drives – for overlooked clues: wallet addresses, private keys, seed phrases. The goal? Stop digital money from disappearing into the ether.
“There’s billions just sitting in evidence lockers – untouched because agencies don’t even know what they’re holding,” Infante [pictured above] told Refresh Miami.
“A lot of agencies are sitting on digital gold and don’t know it,” she said. “The backlog for forensic data is six months to a year in many cases. That’s time for criminals or rogue insiders to act.”
Infante knows the stakes. She launched the DEA’s first cryptocurrency task force, then left government to fill the tech gap she couldn’t ignore. In the time it takes for an agent to get a warrant or review evidence, assets can be moved – sometimes by the criminals, sometimes by rogue insiders with access to unprotected keys. CAT Labs is solving for both.
“In the world of crypto, access is ownership,” Infante asserted. “Just laying eyes on a private key gives you control of the funds. It’s not like a bank account. There’s no password reset. That’s why we treat it like digital cash. If you’ve got the key, you’ve got the money.”
In December 2024, the company raised $5.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Miami-based VC firm M13, alongside Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital, and Hash3. The funding will help CAT Labs expand its work with law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad, as well as develop new tools to prevent large-scale asset loss.
But recovering crypto is just half the story. CAT Labs is also preparing for a threat most people haven’t thought about: quantum computing. As quantum machines edge closer to reality, the encryption that protects financial systems, government records, and private data could quickly become obsolete.
“If a quantum computer hits tomorrow, it could break modern encryption in hours,” Infante said. “That’s not sci-fi, it’s an active security risk.”
To stay ahead, CAT Labs has built a quantum-resistant key vault using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). It allows sensitive data such as crypto wallet keys to be backed up, accessed, and shared securely, without ever decrypting it. The system is already backed by the National Science Foundation and comes with a federal SBIR designation, letting CAT Labs sell directly to U.S. government agencies.
Infante is clear-eyed about the policy changes that will be needed to make these tools effective. “Right now, one analyst can see a private key and walk away with millions. That’s a broken system,” she said. “There need to be protocols, audit trails, and a serious rethink of digital chain of custody.”
“There’s no point building the best tools if there’s no mandate to use them,” she continued. “Policy is the unlock.”
In March, CAT Labs was recognized on a global stage when founder Lili Infante accepted the Startup Innovation Award at the 2025 World Police Summit in Dubai, attended by more than 17,000 public safety officials and technology leaders. Selected from over 200 startups, the company was honored for its breakthrough technology in digital asset recovery and post-quantum security.
With a team of 20 and growing (several based in South Florida) CAT Labs is scaling fast. But for Infante, it’s never been about speed. It’s about staying close.
“We’re always going to be in a cat-and-mouse game with crime,” she said. “Our job is to make sure we’re never more than one step behind.”
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