10 Feb Cape Privacy Propelled By VC Funding And Guidance
Fast growing startup protects highly confidential data in the cloud
– Melbourne, Australia – Feb. 10, 2022
Building highly specialized security technologies can be a way to stand out in a crowded market, but Cape Privacy CEO Chè Wijesinghe knows that building the brain trust to deliver and scale innovative technology can be extremely expensive.
For companies like Cape Privacy — whose core business is built around the use of machine learning to analyze encrypted customer or other data — having the financial backing of strong investor partners made all the difference.
“Having the right amount of venture funding at the right stage of a company’s growth has been critical to our continued success,” Wijesinghe recently said, noting the strong support of Boldstart Ventures, Version One Ventures and several other investors in helping the company secure $5.06 million in seed funding when it emerged from stealth mode in mid-2020.
That funding proved invaluable in helping Cape Privacy target the companies that need it the most: financial services that, Wijesinghe explained, “have struggled to move their highly confidential data to the cloud.”
“Much of this data remains client-side encrypted without any utility for end users without decryption, and creating subsequent security vulnerabilities when detokenized or decrypted.”
Cape’s proprietary technology allows firms to use encrypted data for alpha generation, fraud detection, consumer spend analysis, and other applications — promising to solve significant issues for a broad range of companies.
The appeal of Cape Privacy’s technology was reiterated during its 2021 Series A round, which was led by Evolution Equity Partners and attracted $20 million in funding from its original investors as well as Tiger Global Management, Ridgeline Partners, and Downing Lane.
It was meeting Evolution Equity Partners founding and managing partner Richard Seewald that really clinched the structure of the Series A round, Wijesinghe said, noting that he and co-founder and CTO Gavin Uhma “really liked Richard, his investment thesis, focus on cybersecurity, and his own personal experience of success as an entrepreneur.”
With the right team, anything is possible
The backing of a cybersecurity-hardened investor has meant the world to Cape Privacy, with Wijesinghe noting that Seewald “added a lot more value than a check: his team are a group of hardcore security professionals with decades of experience.”
That experience has helped Cape Privacy rapidly expand its operations — its team grew by 450 percent, including 40 percent in 2021 alone — and a recent partnership with data cloud company Snowflake has provided a pipeline to customers that are well-positioned to benefit from the ability to analyze data even when it has been encrypted to meet security and governance requirements.
Through its years of rapid growth, Wijesinghe knows that the expert guidance offered by the company’s backers helped it both attract and keep the technical experts that it needed.
“Being able to sleep at night having the financial backing to make the right hires in a very competitive job market,” he said, “has been key to building a world-class team.”
In the end, that team — including the expert support of the company’s investors — will be the key to success as a cybersecurity startup, with Wijesinghe encouraging any new CEO to “have a well thought out plan, and hire a great team.”
“Early stage investors look for a great team or a great product idea — and ultimately, execution becomes everything.”
– David Braue is an award-winning technology writer based in Melbourne, Australia.
Go here to read all of David’s Cybercrime Magazine articles.
About Evolution EquityEvolution Equity Partners is an international venture capital investor partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to develop market-leading cyber-security and enterprise software companies.
Based in New York City and Zurich, Switzerland, the firm is managed by investment and technology entrepreneurs who have built companies around the world and leverage their operating, technical and product development expertise to help entrepreneurs win.
Evolution has interest in companies utilizing big-data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, SaaS, mobile and the convergence of consumer and enterprise software to build leading information technology companies.
